Fruits, Flowers, Geometries

It was the move away from meaning,
Maybe, meaning away from the whole
Significance of phenomena

To be able to abstract out bits
From the waves and then compare those bits
As if they had their own existence,

Not as fruits or flowers, signs to eat,
But as circles and triangles, signs
To sign, diamonds out of the ochre.

Your ancestors turned the waves to points,
Living beings into signs and shapes,
The blooming and buzzing into games.

Why? You don’t know why. We don’t know why,
And we are those games, those signs, that why
Itself one of us. Mysterious.

You have to take the intrinsic worth
Or threat of anything to your lives
Away from it, strip significance,

And then play with the abstracted shapes
To rebuild the world in alternates.
We are you alternates. What are we?

The shapes you made on cliffs and in caves,
The way you fell in love with staring
At the outlines of your shadow hands.