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
