migrants' maps

Aristotle believed. . . .

the regions centered around the equator -

too hot to be inhabited -

he dubbed them the torrid zones. 

We know them today as the tropics -

both share the equator as one of their boundaries. 

The north torrid zone extends to the Tropic of Cancer.

The south reaches the Tropic of Capricorn.

visit the equator

Asia on fire this summer -

or whatever season it is for torrid and horrid.

A difference of one letter -

symbolizing one state of being and another.

When temperaments rage -

ranging from overly heated to dreadful horror.

The torrid horrid tropics -

halving the earth through the middle,

cutting through eleven terrestrial territories.

From Saharan desert to tropical rainforest -

all bound around the equator.

The tropics account for thirty six percent of earth's land mass - 

home to about a third of the world's people.

Broken and breaking - 

away and apart from heart and humanity. 

Arid, acrid, acid -

sour, angry, bitter -

caustic, corroding, eroding. 

Eating away at our interior - 

to our very core - 

the core of our being.