No Message

How specific would a message
Have to be, to count as language?

Linguists argue birdsong doesn’t
Quite pass muster. Songs are displays,

Some say, not intended to hide
A coded message. Let’s leave out

The question whether they’re missing
The coding and go with the claim—

Coded message vs. display.
Doesn’t that seem arbitrary,

Separating information
Into discretely distinct bins?

A continuum of message
From simple to elaborate

Seems a more appropriate fit.
But something’s in there, in their code,

In the flailing of languages
And linguists to define language—

A tiny, trifling, scarlet thread
Of meaning through information,

Of meaning not information,
Of meaning in code that’s not code.