Monovalence Not

The Poet decides he just can't commit to one meaning for life.

Monovalence Not

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, or belief,
for us to choose,

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 style

and die of moldy wrinkled skin,
than embody only one meaning,
and to only 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"