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Poetry

But, Socrates

Gary W. Gilbert doesn’t seem to know the form.

I like to compare
A chair and a stool
Or a horse and a mule
To induce, of course,
The chairness of chair
Or the horseness of horse.

But, Socrates,
I have to confess
I can make quite a mess
Of the essence of ness,
If you please.

The sine qua non of a stone
Is its stoniness,
That’s a certain text.
But sine-qua-noniness
I had best let alone
Like a stone unperplexed
In its loneliness.

Gary W. Gilbert is a writer living in Wyoming.