Doubling Up, Doubling Down

Sameness but also

The difference it’s

In tension with is

How one art critic

Parses doubleness.

The works in question

Mostly fall in two

Categories—one

In which two objects—

Say, cast copper cones

Or cement columns—

Are both purpose-built

To be as alike

As peas in a pod,

But are then displayed

Distinctly—and one

In which the first or

Original piece

Had an element

Of accident

In its making—

A frame of shattered

Glass, a whimsical

Collage abstract—then

The second piece

Exactly copies

The contingent one

Down to small details.

Display, intention—

Ways doubles can be

Different. Ok.

But every atom

In the quantum field

Of every paired piece

Is a different knot

In the waves. Tell us,

From each distinct

Swerve in the world, where

Similarity

Comes from—all this play

Declares that you know

Sameness is a trick,

But sameness itself,

Similarity

Isn’t fake. Likeness

Exists. Likenesses

Are everywhere. How

Can likeness exist?