Old World maps fascinated me as a young adult. I even considered having one tattooed to my back. I am happy to say that I decided against it. Though maps continue to interest me, especially hand-drawn maps. In Fourth grade at many Waldorf schools the students are taught to make maps of their classrooms (or bedrooms) and then the school, town and state. Learning how to put everything in its place and in correct proportion is a good exercise.

In the David Foster Wallace book, "Infinite Jest" his main character refers to his mind or brain as his "map". I hold true to this and so I include the following poem I wrote a decade ago.

My Minds
by Elizabeth Jackson Doshi

There are several minds like deities
that reign o'er my evolution
on the strength of their varieties
and wheels need revolution


The gods that are consistent
turn to turn away
these furies spin persistent
For punishment is pay

Count these minds in me
actors on a much loved stage
adored in tempered purity
worshiped in epidemic rage

The most unlikely friends
I'm forced to call my own
The coward and the hypocrite
The Infirm and the clone

All is not completely lost
and as my tongue would have it
the tales I tell are tickets tossed
to stars redeemed and so uncrossed
My freedom almost nearly won
to galaxy from favored sun

No one sees my efforts now
but minds within needs surely bow
at tables set and sched's complete
no love drops lost of tempest's beat

Confusion guided, strayers found
I wooed a murderer's heart to peace
and tore the dullard's sense unbound
These tasks I vow to never cease
as long as living I still long live
to stumble into prayer and give
the only prize I care to own
in name, my minds' immortal bones.