: cleave :

& when they were cut out, they both strode on to the roof, & stood, & lookedat the havoc they’d caused. One twin turned to the other & said, My, we’regreat, we’ve caused all this, we’ve broken the flood barrier.

—The Story Of Two Twins, ...And The Native Hipsters

In January 2001, the Htoo twins turned themselves in to Thai border guards,admitted they had no magical powers, and asked for their mommy.

—Wonder Twins, Sarah Vowell

& ever ampersanded, Venn‐diagramed, notdoubles, but halves. & super‐abundance of force inevitably produces its ownopposite. & it is equivalentto the principle of equilibriumin the natural world, in that anyextreme is opposed by the systemin order to restorebalance. Literally, runningcounter to. & it was notmorning, it was notcalm. & if fragile, thenseethingly so, & the tropeof the two is chaos, & we fallin, hold fast. If we relax for a secondwe'd never find our wayback, we'd go to pieces & the pieceswould be blown away, the tinyterrorists would win. & that their greatestdistinction might have simply beentheir own circumstance & yet, bloodyoverkill, the we is simultaneouslysingular & plural, & implies a degreeof regality. & if reflection thenreactive, Boolean operators & somewhatMartian XOR, & this cuspof twinly dread, too many, toofast, too muchlike reading the sun without properprotective eye wear & translationtexts on idiosyncraticdualism. & do youeven know what I mean when I say kitkittens or baby wawa, no, youdon't, & besides, I can't even hearyou right now (mostoften, idioglossia refers to the privatespeech of young children, especiallytwins, the latter which is known as crypto‐phasia). & lieswhich, for sheer strangenessare often betterthan this or any other, & no, I neverput technology in mymouth, not ever, written in perfect iambs &in perfect imprints of eachother's teethin their flesh, & lingual vs. glottal stops, &stray cats & carpenterbees. & how they openour wounds & fill them with lead, giddyoblivious. & how they are osmosis,undiluted, & shared permeablemembrane, inherently intertwined, & weare external, ever, & learn to existin a lesser degree. As much of a weas we can or care to be, nothingdissolved about it, we look betteron the ground— they look betterin trees, sleeping hollowversus riotous circus.____Jenn McCreary is the author of :ab ovo:, published by Dusie Press in the spring of 2009. She is also the author of two chapbooks: errata stigmata (Potes & Poets Press), & four o’clock pocket chiming (Beautiful Swimmer Press); the e-chapbook :Maps & Legends: (Scantily Clad Press) & a doctrine of signatures (Singing Horse Press).Her poetry has been published in magazines including Combo, Lungfull!, Tool: A Magazine, POM2, So To Speak, Sous Rature, Tangent, & How2. She lives in Philadelphia where she co-edits ixnay press with Chris McCreary, works for the Mural Arts Program, wrangles twins, & charms snakes.