poem “extinct, like the dodo”, a poem about how now since everyone uses smart phones and GPS units for directions that buying a local map is getting harder and harder, By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers

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extinct, like the dodo
Janet Kuypers
5/11/15
didn’t have a smart phone on me.
was lost driving at night alone.
didn’t recognize the streets —
so all i could do was pull into
a gas station and buy a map.
walked in. looked everywhere.
found maps of planet earth
and the United States, but nothing local.
saw the attendant at the counter.
asked him where the maps were.
“you didn’t see any over there?”,
he asked. i said no. and he said,
“well, we used to have more,
but now we have candy bars there.
would you like some candy bars?”
he asked me jokingly, when i just wanted
to know where i was going.
excuse me, can you tell me
where i am? ‘cause i can’t find a map,
the attendant here couldn’t find
his way out of a cardboard box,
and now i’m lost, because without
access to a G.P.S., it seems that maps
have forever flown away
and now they’re extinct birds.