THE THIRD THING

 

There’s Fact, there’s fiction, and there is the third thing

Manifesting in real time. Dreams. Confusing the black with the white.

There’s right, there’s wrong, and then–the gray area

Doubling down on a choice. Walking a tightrope, feeling the way.

There’s good, there’s evil, there’s lost, there’s found,

but then there’s the third thing

Throughline. Prescripted error,

Calculated risk, course correction,

stabbing wildly at something.

 

There’s fear and there’s courage, and then

That third thing again.

Yes, No, and maybe,

Mixed and magical, the slippery slope to creating a saga

Seeing consequences patently not winning, not losing,

beyond easy judgment.

Peace in being flawed, humility in agency,

Freedom from the tyranny of

having to choose between Self-Love and Self-Hate

Once and for all, Forever After, Done and Dusted—

no more seasons of change.

 

Fact and Fiction plow up no soil alone. Since

Life and death are not wholly optional, I choose

That third thing to grow upon.

Comfort in adjusting the story. Writing as I go.

Facing my own sun, watering my struggling ideas

along with the weeds

Reaching for the others who stretch bravely and with uncertainty–

Not just up or down, but out in every direction. And in,

in every direction.

And that third thing, too.

Let’s not forget that third thing, beyond.

-kem