Consequently, This Taxonomy Can’t Explain Anything

Explanation’s temporal,
Story gravitational.
Explanation sweeps forward,

Causes always in the past,
Always on present heading,
Unidirectional darts.

Story has many centers
Of causation, has agents
As their own centers of cause,

Centripetal as planets
Orbiting stars orbiting
Galaxies pinned by black holes.

Stories start from collections
Of causes interacting,
Agents dragging and hauling,

Pushing and shoving in all
Directions, coalescing
Or tearing themselves apart.

Explanations just look back
To declare this has happened
And is happening because

Of that, and that is always
The past that rolls further back
To more causes in its past.

An explanation can be
A story, and a story
Can be an explanation,

But those two are not the same,
Only sequences sharing
A core faith in causation.