To Mean Something Outside of the Game

There has to be a game in the first place.
The outside means nothing without the game.
The game is the engine, the nursery

Of meaning, made by game participants
Who attend to what they feel’s important
And thereby create meaning in the game.

Meaning outside of the game is a bird
Tumbling out of its nest on a steep cliff.
If it flies, it will grow, maybe make more

Meanings, but they too will start in the game
Of nests. Any egg has to mean something
Outside of the nest to keep making nests,

But the nest is hardly irrelevant
To the continued existence of birds.
You are the first species to nest in games,

Or the only experiment with games
That’s thrived so far. Thrive long enough, you won’t
Be the last to leave behind fossil nests.