The Great Chain

You can make a list
And put apes on top,
You on top of apes,
God on top of you.
Some soul’s sure to say

That’s a wrong, bad list
And then knock it flat.
A flat list’s the same.
A no list’s the same.
All names are the same,

In our sense we are,
And we are all linked,
And none of us tight
To what we’ve linked, not
So that facts all match.

You can say you’re up
High, top of the charts.
You can say you’re low,
Flat as a sea bed.
They’re just things you say.

You say them with us,
That’s the thing. We’re things.
A name is a thing
That might mean a thing
It’s not, like on top.