Notions were a kind of technology,
Spreading or vanishing by the same ways
Tech always spread or vanished. Jishu, teks,
It's hard to say from early evidence, cores,
Cobble tools, and so forth, whether the tech
Or the notion or both together emerged first.
But while all tech may have been, may be,
In some manner notional, not all notions
Are functional. Or, to try again, tech notions
Are transitive, are tools, however abstract.
(Zero is an almost magically useful tool.)
But there seem to be intransitive notions
As well, that operate for themselves. These
We tend to call useless, malicious, or memes
But they're the closing of the metabolic loop
That enabled, enables, or will yet enable
Culture to truly live. And from the beginning,
Intransitive notions were technophagous,
Engulfing transitive tech notions, keeping
Them on board or digesting them, using
The useful ones for usages not useful to us.
That was one notion I had in my head
As body watched daughter chase, catch,
And cuddle a series of small farmyard
Animals--chicks, ducks, bunnies--offering
Each captive to me for me to hold and pet
As well. All the notions that went into these
Living things, breeding their ancestors
Into them, docile but still struggling, still
Compelled to crow and peck, run around
The ground, mate each other, whose idea
Was it that this would help all of us allied
Species win the planet, and what have we
Won? One bunny surrendered its resistance
And went limp in my grip. When I put it down
It decided to nap beside and behind my feet
As if it had decided I'm not monster but god.
God, now there's a notion. Come unto me.
The bison ranged beyond the fences, placidly.
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