The Library of Maps, #3
THE LOST MAP

I
It had never been easy being the Chief Librarian,
But now she felt more apprehensive than usual.

She—and only she—
Knew that the Great Alchemical Map of the Hermetic Garden
Had been misplaced, if not downright lost.

She remembered
The huge sheet of translucent paper
—crackling when folded—
On which were traced paths
That guided one up a hill,
Encumbered with battling dragons,
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And down again to a ruined building,
In front of which a serpent dragon seized its own tail.
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The scenes were lit by three moons
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And three suns.
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She remembered another scene
Of a fountain,
Supported by a lion with a single head and two bodies,
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Of flaming crucibles,
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Of the Hand of God thrust from the sky,
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And the inhabitants of the Garden
—a woman with a crescent moon on her
head,
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And a man with a nimbus of flame.
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/emblems/embl008.html

When she first began to work in the Library,
She would go regularly at noon
To see the map, caressing it with her eyes,
Loath to let it out of her hands
When she had to return to her desk.

At night she would dream of being in the Garden,
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Of walking by
A tree with two embracing snakes
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Along an avenue
Toward a large rose bush with seven blossoms
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And beyond the bush
To a building,
And inside the building
Entering a room
Containing a flask and a square furnace.
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Her dreams
Always ended
With her, dumbfounded,
Staring into a crowned flask
In which a three-headed dragon pranced.
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II
Now that she was old,
She had been looking at the Map less
But still with a certain regularity.
Her staff knew, for example, where she could be
Found each Monday at noon.

One day, however, when she climbed the ladder to reach
For the Map on the top shelf,
She found nothing.

She began to remember
That she had decided on a different hiding place,
But her memory,
Now that she was old,
Was faulty, deceptive.

She looked among the piles of the Great Maps of the Seas,
The Great Maps of the Mountain Lakes,
And the Great Maps of the Subterranean Passages,
But could not find the Map.

That night, instead of returning to her nearby home,
She stayed
—although increasingly faint and sick of heart—
In the Library after it closed.

She walked holding a candle aloft,
Searching systematically
From room to room, shelf to shelf.

Finally, in despair,
She went out into the Library’s Garden
To rest on one of the marble benches.

As she sat down,
She found lying beside her on the bench,
Covered with dew,
The crumpled Great Alchemical Map of the Hermetic Garden.

And when she looked out across the lawn
She saw the fountain,
Supported by a lion with a single head and two bodies,
The flaming crucibles,
A table resting on three lions,
And the Hand of God thrust from the sky.

As the Chief Librarian lay dying
In light shed by three moons and three suns,
She saw dimly in the distance
Rain falling over a dark landscape
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Out of which emerged yet another landscape
Of eyes within the earth, in water, in air, and in fire.
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And as she died,
A swan flew toward her,
On its back bearing a globe
Containing a pelican
And a phoenix.
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by Moira Roth
Written 3/21/01, revised 5/03-5/04/01