Three

1.

The houseboat I have built has room for three.
There's you and me
and always, too, the keel
that keeps things stable.

Thesis, antithesis, synthesis:
Hegel's old spiral
that leans because it straddles
both depths and heights;

so, too, triangulation
that guides by stars;
in when in water I see
my own reflection;

or creatures, regardless of size,
that hunger, thirst, and must find relief.
And, of course, myself,
my sin and my redemption.

2.

All life is dependent on loss
converted by spite into winning:
We must! We must!
And so are driven to distraction.

This going double
is not as simple as it seems.
We are and we are not.

But don’t make trouble for yourself
by asking questions.
There is no why,
not even the least suggestion.

We are! We are!
And just as truly are not.

We make time flow, if simply by emotion,
going back and back and back,
tracking emotions.

Regarding motion, we are waves
that lap at the shore.

3.

To laugh is to be stable.

To laugh looks back with elbows on the table
and sees the joke
that groups of three have evoked
since Noah's time.

Again, the water's rising
and icebergs float
in solid white away from land to melt,
as in defeat
where feats no longer matter.

To build a boat
that floats on quarried waters
makes three a crime,
but provides saline advantage.

The old salt knows
when his wooden leg is pulled.
He is not blind
despite the patch on one eye.

He’s out of time
and standing fast against as though maligned,
but still pretty good with a sword,

or the kind of word
that blows up the skirt, making sail,
or applies the oars.

4.

To become as three makes us free,
two ourselves
and our current double,

and the bird or the squirrel in the tree
that decides to flee,
nonetheless remains in our presence.

It is such as these,
these figments of imagination, these memories
that provide our triangulation
and are the stars
that rule the life of pure reason;

not IFs, but AREs distinguish fact from fiction,
make clear our weak addiction
to what is seen
over what we still can imagine:
you, me and our current affliction:
be it love or hope.