The Plank

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After slaying the Minotaur,

Theseus sailed home to Athens.

The Athenians preserved his ship in the harbor.

When a plank rotted,

they replaced it with new timber.

The ship endured.

Year after year. Plank after plank.

The philosophers began to argue.

If every plank has been replaced,

is it still the same ship?

Thomas Hobbes asked:

What if someone rebuilt the ship

from the discarded planks?

Now there are two ships.

Which one is the Ship of Theseus?

Theseus returned to Athens

after many years.

He went to see his ship.

He recognized neither.

Neither recognized him.

They had all been replaced.