Universal corrective-my poem for a world I dont understand any more

I wrote this poem after a visit to the exhibition of maps at the National Library of Scotland with my creative writing group; the Gallery writers, led by Helen Boden. The exhibition was unexpectedly ( for me) wonderful. As the curator said, every map is a story and what an eclectic mix it is. There is every kind of map, from a map that itself becomes a poem to a beautiful smells map of Edinburgh. But the one that drew me in was the upside down map of the world; Macarthur's Universal Corrective you can do go and see the exhibition it's a fascinating collection. The distortion of the image was an analogy for how I've been feeling of late.....

Universal Corrective

My map of the world is
upside down
I thought I knew it as a truth
that my way was right
or at least I saw it the right way up

This way looks strange
and I'm fearful
of falling off
a small appendage
of a world I no longer recognise

The centre of this map
is a scattering of islands
in a vast Pacific Ocean
Like stars they remind me
of our powerlessness

Flip it up again
I want to call
get us back to how
I know the world to be
Can anyone hear me?

This isn't how I believed it to be
I'm tied to another image
I'm clinging to my own map
But the universal corrective
has another plan