There is a bit of slap­stick com­e­dy in this poem of conun­drums. In ​“Mul­ti­ple Man: Guest-star­ring me & You”, Gary Jack­son knows that he is play­ing a game with per­cep­tion — is the ​“you” him­self or some­one else — per­haps a past lover? But in the end, it does not mat­ter, because the sense of lone­li­ness and the hunger for com­pan­ion­ship at the core of this poem are absolute­ly clear. ​“You left me”, he says, with a hint of melo­dra­ma. But in the end, he reminds us that some­times the per­ceived anti­dote for our need (our ​“dearth”) can be cat­a­stroph­ic (“the flood”).