Fictile Origin

Start with a simple dyad,
Character paired to event,
Two gobs of mud to finger,

Work with, turn into figures
That you can make interact.
Character can be barren

As a pronoun—first, second,
Or third-person, singular
Or plural, any gender—

Each pick immediately
Sets up some expectation
In a half-attentive mind,

A first step to or away
From identification
Or alienation. Then,

Work even one event in—
He woke up. She walked faster.
Oh, yes. You have to have tense.

Don’t worry. Time is the wet
In the clay. Makes it squishy.
On its own, time goes one way,

But arrested by story,
It evaporates slowly.
You can twist it and fold it

Back on itself with a squeeze.
So here you go: We, sex, then.
You can use those. Begin, please.