One Meaning

One Meaning

You ask me again and again,
“what is my meaning” and
“what do I believe in?”

If there is only one thing
we are each meant to do,
only one meaning, belief
or way for us to be,

I would choose to be
just wading in the manhood
of the shallow waters—

. . . . a swamp of desperation,
wrinkling my skin,
wrecking my hairdo,
and all that I am.

Maybe I’d swim down river
as fast as I can, to
to the swamp of “I am that I am.”

Once there I would wade
in the muck all the while—
for if it’s all the same to you,
I’d rather rot in that swamp

and die of moldy wrinkled skin,
than embody only one meaning,
and to one belief, give in.




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This poem is from "Bottle in the River" 
                     about a Poet's journey down a river, chasing a bottle
                     tossed by the fingertips of "that I am."
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Written within the parameters of the theory of "Multivalence"