The What It Is

Ontology’s got nothing
On intentionality—
You can know the quiddity

To ti esti, of a wave
In the way it is a wave,
And know its haecceity

In how it’s just that one wave
In itself and no other,
And likeness can mediate,

Like the trough connecting each
Of these superpositions,
Whatever, but can you know

What the wave has on its mind,
What the wave intends for you,
How it wants to swallow you?

With intentionality,
You can develop prescient
Self-awareness, including

Of death, you can have beliefs
And superstitions, you can
Shape rituals, religion,

Raise political structures
And conspire to bring them down.
Best and worst of all, you can

Convince yourself the waves crawl
Menacingly toward you
As night skies plan around you.

But what really is it, this
Thing, intentionality?
It comes from out of nowhere

Or was always everywhere,
Latent in the universe,
Thinking about what to do.