Beginning by Maureen Cary

Which word came first,
a yes or no?
or more actively
a come or go?

Did someone smile,
or did she frown,
emit and then repeat
a sound?

Or was a sentence first,
a string of sounds,
which let a speaker
first expound

and mystify the listener,
who turned to go
but then turned back,
befuddled by the words he lacked?

Until he repeated back
the sound he'd heard, 'til
repetition formed a pact

of words, establishing
the peace or war,

or even friendship,
--a word no one had
heard before.