Nothing, one, and everything were the only whole numbers I recognized,
Everything, one, and nothing. Or everyone, one, and no one, the same.I conceded it was possible, as I crossed the morning bridge
Over the "permanently closed" but enduringly sulfurous hot springs
Whose fumes like hounds escaped barred gates to chase commuter traffic,
With everyone young chattering in the back of my one car, that one
In fact contained both everyone and no one, all and nothing,
Which seemed a bit guru for my taste, especially with the stench of hell
Flaring my nostrils. In fact, I'm not sure I ever really had faith in one.
If there is a unity to all and none, it's in the relentless change
That exchanges the one for the other, the ever-braiding delta
Downstream from but beckoning, always beckoning me.
Delta functions as an adjective in equations, signaling
Change in the term that follows. Delta t is a variable, change over time.
Change was never over time, however. Change was in nothing
So that time's been in everything. Don't think of them
Too glibly as separate things, just as the fact of separating,
The fact of the way the world is, was, and becomes the world.
The way I am and the way the world is, as it were, were never
A particularly good fit, but I can say I lasted longer, partially intact, than I ever
Thought I would, if not so long as my father, who was somehow
An even poorer fit. Nonetheless, everything escaping has to let nothing
Back out again, I was thinking, the stench of the inaccessible healing waters falling
Behind, another day, perhaps, everything and nothing as one. Another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment