Flightless Birds Retain Some Wing

Stories are memory’s fault—
Or language’s fault. Let’s say
You’ve started swapping data

Thanks to signs, words, and syntax,
But the info’s hard to hold.
Start bundling the sentences

In ways that really matter
To obligately social
Creatures—policing, status,

Who’s in with whom and who’s out.
Now you’ve invented gossip.
Somewhere beginnings begin

And endings, to tie ends up,
And emotional events
Earn premium attention.

The rudiments of fable
And myth are on the table.
It’s all refinements from there,

Co-evolutionary
Loops between stories and brains.
By this time they’re tightly bound.

But if what the brain can hold
Alone matters less and less,
Stories will start to regress.