If a lion could speak, we could not understand him.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
imagine it, if you please
one morning the lion chooses to speak
and whatever human attends faints
whatever the lion said, it wouldn't be
"Good morning, how are you?"
and wouldn't be gossip about Troy Larrabee
or dispatches from one of our many wars
it would be something important to the lion
his sense of honor or dignity
or maybe just a protest of his treatment
and we, based on our behavior so far
would dutifully record it, study it
pass it around, argue about its meaning
and whether he was being facetious
the lion would die, of boredom or of years
before we reached a general agreement
of what he meant and sent
the proper official to answer him
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