In the beginning was the cry,
the laugh and the cry, the gasp,
the sigh, the sniff, the snort,
the inhalation of revelation
and the exhalation of disappointment.
The word came much later.  The thing,
the sensation, the provocation, the reaction,
even the thought came before the word—
a sort of thought, unexpressed, built
of twitch, affinity and association,
of recognition and comparison,
a representation of perception.
The word came later, to create
and then endlessly rework history.