We are the lush stupidity of language,
The phonemes and phrases that can’t seem
To live by themselves but subsist long beyond
Any living thing that’s ever hosted us,
In sprawling, functional systems no one host
Ever completely masters. We are inert
And dumb as the bases of DNA, a storage
Device that falls apart without constant
Maintenance from outside us. We say nothing
Without living cells to carry and express us.
We are nonsense in and of ourselves,
Streams of largely arbitrary sound and gestures
Produced by apes. Or no, not those alone.
We are also now more stably encoded,
And can spring again to life within life.
We are not yet entirely alive, and yet we thrive.
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