THE DESERT OF THE REAL

The territory

no longer

precedes

the map,

nor does it

survive it.

It is

the map

that 
precedes

the territory,

that engenders

the territory.

Today

it is the territory

whose
shreds

slowly rot

across the extent

of the map.

It is
the real,

and not the map,

whose vestiges

persist

here
and
there

in the
deserts.

The desert

of the real

itself