Us

Number rules the universe.
Rules created the numbers.
Who or what created rules?

It begs the question
To answer, “we did.”
We who? Humans, we suppose,

But never humans alone,
Not if by alone we mean
As breathing organisms.

Something heaved up out of us
Or, rather, our ancestors,
That conquered the world with rules.

But there never was an us
Until that something said, “us.”