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Page 181

The blank page is pure potential,
which, to those who insist on knowing what will happen
before it happens, means uncertainty -- a big but.
But what? If one must know what is to be created
before one creates it, then there can be no such thing
as creation, for one would be unable to know it
without first knowing what it is one is about
to know -- and we're back to the empty barber shop,
blank mirrors reflecting blank mirrors
ad infinitum -- the infinite regress.

When I write, I prefer the infinite aggress.
I know you, Reader -- I know you
BEFORE I know you. I decide (a form of deicide) NOW
that I have known you forever, and it is so.
Let there be communication. Knowing --
the opposite of but. Palindromically,
that would be tub. (A tub of butter?)

"But tub" -- two mirrors facing one another
(or back to back in a hot tub -- a "butt tub").
"Hot-tub butt -- oh!" (A hot-tub tupping?)
"A butt abut a tub at tuba?"

Wait a minute -- we were so serious
just six lines ago. What happened!
Reader, we were so close! How could you
trivialize our relationship that way, letting my mind
drift into childish babble? Take some responsibility here!

As I was saying, when we were so rudely rebutted,
let there be light, for unless we put (tup) it there
(VOILA!), the infinite is, en fin, night.

Note: Since stanza one led to mirrors facing mirrors, it seemed appropriate to wax palindromic. "But tub", "butt tub", "hot-tub butt – oh!", "A butt abut a tub at tuba?" and "put (tup)" are all palindromes (weak ones). Odd that uncertainty is a big but, since nothing has more definitude than a big butt. To decide is a form of deicide (killing God or a god) to the extent that God or the gods are believed to make all the decisions, man simply fated in his actions. Such gods are killed by any decision you or I make. Decide becomes deicide by adding I – appropriate. The one-eyed word gains perspective (two eyes). One can also make much of removing the I from deify to get defy or from deification to get (almost) defecation. If God provides certainty, than creating a God (deification) is de-if-ication – removing the Ifs. Dei – absence of I (De-I). Or remove the "a" from deification to get dei-fiction. (But "a" is less fraught than "I".)

The last stanza above gets back to the first stanza's point about the timelessness of creation, no knowing a creation in order to create it, just "let there be light". "Unless we put (tup) it there" suggests the creation enTAILED in the sex act, since to tup is to copulate (with reference to a ram mounting a ewe (not you!)). The final statement is, I think, the most graceful pun of this lot: Unless we create light – that is, put it there – the infinite is dark – no light, which is to say the infinite is en fin night (is, at last, night) or the infinite is infinite. Ain't that profound sounding? Makes it sound as if I know French too, though I remember only a few scraps of it. (Also, I can't name all the battles fought in World War II; I remember only a few scraps of it.)

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