A Descriptive Linguistics of Isolation
for Shana
Verbs of motion will be the first to go—well, not go
which has long gone the way of disappearing
into idiom. No, we will lose the careful ones:
disembark, sojourn, trek, take leave. Perhaps,
even, arrive. There will come a day when we will believe
all movement is rooted into the ontology of trees:
their sway and buckle, tilt and bend. Fall. We will think
the wind can move us only so far. Birds over the horizon
will be gods again, the mystery of migration
a myth meant to explain the human desire to be
reborn, for our tongues to carve out prayers
in a language that can conceptualize not here.
