There You Go

Take a language-capable
Social brain and steep it in
A social group with language—

Voila! A human being,
A person, self-reflecting,
From nowhere, that can vanish.

You can find them everywhere,
Clustered, each as a body,
Each body a distinct whole

Interacting with others,
More rarely sitting alone.
Don’t let those bodies fool you.

They’re necessary. They’re not
Sufficient. Pay attention
To the surrounding language,

The melange of sounds and signs.
Little pieces of persons,
Floating afterimages

And pollen to seed new souls
Are trafficked in those auras,
And no one knows where they go.