I think you said: I think,
you said.
[Words diffusing upon approach.]
What’s that you said,
I say.
[Reply far from presumed.]
But you can’t think me you know,
you said.
[Knowingly.]
I’ll have you know that I think you at will,
I say.
[Wishfully.]
Not really anyway,
you said.
[With authoritative clang.]
Yes really, truly, surely, assuredly, unquestionably and – finally – absolutely,
I say.
[Nudged, already at this early stage, into a synonymous rage.]
I think I can know you,
you said.
[A little less certain.]
Can one think that one knows,
I say.
[Knowing, of course, that one can.]
Have knowledge of at least,
you said.
[Certitude waning ahead demise inevitable.]
An oblique knowing at best then,
I say.
[Attempting to, from parallels, deviate.]
On second thoughts, knowledge is perhaps a little strong,
you said.
[Certainty’s flow reducing now to a trickle.]
I’ll say it’s strong,
I say.
[Exclamation masquerading as a promised future.]
More of an assumption I guess,
you said.
[Capitulation nearing culmination.]
You merely presuppose that you can,
I say.
[Attempting to highlight nuances subtle.]
Do as I say and not as I do,
you said.
[An abrupt shift in topos; a zenithal plunge.]
You always say ‘do’ when it ought be a ‘did’,
I say.
[Frustrations building, mounting and growing.]
Actions, after all, speak louder than thought,
you said.
[Acerbic ascertainment adroitly averted.]
Actions didn’t/don’t/won’t, if you care to ask me,
I say.
[Knowing full well that you never quite can.]
Even as words start to fall out of meaning,
you said.
[Meaning escaping all attempts to be known.]
Or as meaning inevitably falls out of words,
I say.
[Knowledge avoiding all attempts to be meant.]
I think that I’m now, in tense, all but lost,
you said.
[Lucidity approaches (with slight delay)?]
Grammatical grounds for perplexities philosophic,
I say.
[Sensing a chance most ripe to be seized.]
There’s no I in team,
you said.
[Return to non sequiturs betraying distance betwixt.]
But no team in I either,
I say.
[A point mooted hopefully having powers to bridge.]
I have the sneaking suspicion that we are but convenient fictions – you and I,
you said.
[A shift of subject worthy subjects still shifting.]
Actors on an imaginary stage; underdetermined and – perhaps – overpaid,
I say.
[Humour wasted on an absent(minded) audience.]
Or was that me and you,
you said.
[Conventions polite playing tricks on the selves.]
Me, you, I, we, them; who’s keeping track,
I say.
[Amphiboly borne of quotation marks lacking.]
Both appearing as we’ve never quite been,
you said.
[With insight uncharacteristic.]
More artefacts of thought than facts of life I guess,
I say.
[Thought partially obscured in shadows cast its own light.]
I feel like I’m constantly watched, that I’m never not seen,
you said.
[Looking in places beyond hindsight’s reach.]
There are things you’re now seeing, things best left unseen,
I say.
[Participles oozing italics as they move into the present.]
Can’t quite seem to think straight,
you said.
[Lost in thoughts of other(s).]
Can’t think at all you mean,
I say.
[Thought bridled at last.]
Not even sure who I am,
you said.
[Aporia transcendental.]
Finally we’re getting somewhere,
I say.
[Exhaustion nigh fatal.]
Nicholas Lawrence is a postgraduate philosophy student living in Stockholm. His original fiction has been published by theEEEL, Tincture Journal, Potluck Magazine, Sein und Werden and Crab Fat Magazine. His translations have been featured by Brooklyn Rail’s InTranslation and make sporadic appearances on Monday Art Project.
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