Born with a line drawn through the middle this side that side choose every mouth demands an answer every hand points somewhere every truth arrives divided before it gets there one for me one for you clean simple wrong something remains between Left in Three I watched them cut the world with perfect knives name the halves raise the walls teach the children which side was alive black white yes no mine yours saint sinner one two but underneath the arithmetic something wouldn't divide three There is always something left when certainty is finished a piece without a country a word without a side Left in Three you can split the bread split the blood split the land split the sky you can split the atom split the family split the difference split the mind divide divide divide until division is the only thing you share one for me one for you and one you never counted three I saw the third standing quietly between the armies no flag no weapon no permission to exist both sides called it traitor both sides called it theirs both sides demanded choose it chose neither Left in Three three against two three against four three beneath the marching feet three inside the argument three behind the door count it one two one two one two where did you put three? inside the space you couldn't own inside the thought you couldn't name inside the question you buried because the answer wouldn't behave three Mother says choose Father says choose Teacher says choose Preacher says choose Leader says choose Screen says choose Left or right right or wrong us or them pick a fucking side I did the third silence three Now the rhythm leans against me two hands pulling either way one foot planted in the middle one step they cannot make three over two three over four nine folding into seven twelve divided still three you keep trying to make me even I keep coming back odd you keep trying to make me whole I keep finding another third body mind something else past future now birth death between you me what happens between us three Maybe the mistake was never division maybe the mistake was believing the pieces had to be two Left in Three I have seen two righteous hands strangle the same throat two opposing mouths speak the same hatred two different flags cover the same dead two perfect answers make the same mistake and somewhere underneath them three breathing still not neutral not empty not afraid just unowned Left in Three cut me again go ahead draw another line through my chest tell the left half to hate the right tell the right half it survived then listen between the beats one two three one two three one two three no one two one two one two THREE there the remainder the witness the thing your mathematics forgot three You can have your halves keep your poles keep your walls keep your perfect little opposites I will take what falls between them the discarded thought the unanswered question the unwanted color the third road the third hand the third voice the third beat Left in Three and when the world is finally divided down to nothing when every border has another border when every answer needs an enemy when every side has forgotten what it stood beside something will remain not left not right left in three.
