That We Know What It Means When We Don’t

Or, we should say, you know
What it means when we don’t.

You have depths, lives in you
Lived long since that were carved

So that you fit the world
Like a tool fits the hand,

Like a fish fits the waves.
You know in ways we can’t—

Your lives start out as shaped.
But of the shapes you take,

You’ll find us, terms like us,
Shared ways, shared tools to cut

Up the world, bits of names,
A skill in all your skulls.

And so you use us, must
Use us to say you know

What you don’t know how you
Could know. So you tell tales,

And we’re the tales you tell.
How do we know this is

True? We don’t quite. We do
Know how to tell you, though.