Why We Never Get to the Point

No one’s really using the same units.
There are no same units. Only closer
And closer approximations of them—

Step, foot, meter, year, month, day, hour, second,
Better and better, more precise seconds,
Approaching that apex, the perfect point.

It’s good for coordination. It’s good
For murderously cooperative
Humans to agree like that. That’s the point.

There is no point in the cosmos itself.
There are no points, just pointed likenesses.
It’s an endless sea, chain mail of bright scales,

Overlapping waves protecting the skin
Of the leviathan, reality,
The dragon whose every scale is unique.

Still, scientists keep refining standards.
The idea is to agree. Agreement
Oils the points with which to slay the dragon.