Me, thinking.

Who spoke the first word
and who first heard?
Was it a word of warning?
Or a word of love?
Was it a grunt of fear,
or a coo like a dove?
Was the word-creator
the one who noised first
or the noise-imitator?
And how quickly
did that first word spread?
Did it crawl or leap
from head to head?
Over a million years passed
from the first word to Wordle
where you succed by jumping
over five-letter hurtles.

Me, thinking.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell