Wednesday, November 3, 2010

ONE AND ONE

For every one there is a one, and one
and one make one, divided.

For every one a one must die, and every
death is one, provided

every other is a one and one
is every other.

An other and a one make one,
husbanded and brided.

The union of a one and one
makes other, suicided.

Self-murder of the one-in-one is mother
of the other one and one

another's one-in-ones conspire to smother
other ones, while lovers

wire their one and ones
implacably together.

One is bound and gagged by one, one
saws and frays the knot

of one, and one
lets slip the tether.

2 comments:

Pat Warner said...

I like this one a lot...A bit of Muldoonery, maybe? But also Michael Drayton:

Nothing but "No," and "I,"and "I," and "No"?
How falls it out so strangely you reply?
I tell ye, Fair, I'll not be answered so,
With this affirming "No," denying "I."
I say, "I love," you slightly answer "I";
I say, "You love," you pule me out a "No";
I say, "I die," you echo me an "I";
"Save me," I cry, you sigh me out a "No";
Must woe and I have nought but "No" and "I"?
No I am I, if I no more can have;
Answer no more, with silence make reply,
And let me take myself what I do crave.
Let "No" and "I" with I and you be so;
Then answer "No," and "I," and "I" and "No."


Still not sure I've figured this one out...

Pat

Zachariah Wells said...

Thanks for the Drayton, Pat. If I ever read the poem--can't recall--it would have been 10+ years ago, so no conscious riffing off it. Nor off Muldoon, not consciously at least. Not sure where it came from, nor what it means. If anything.