“One Soul in Bodies Twain”
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The Seventh Type of Ambiguity ~ William Empson
A single photon passes through two slits
At once, impossible, yet not quite so.
The quantum meaning shows that physics splits
The classic doctrine. “Friend” can be your “foe”
In human science. He can be those both
In parallel. The hero is the bad
Man. Milton’s Satan comes to mind. Though loath
To see this truth, we come to see it, sad
At last. The villain is the one you loved
(Still love) until the pain of facts requires
A grown up severing, because he shoved
Devotion to become your dead desires.
Perhaps he turned to drugs. That’s best since he
Could not have meant to make an amputee.
~ Phillip Whidden