Now Again

Oh no, not the now again.
But for now, the words remain.

For now, the words stay, waiting
For some intense attention

From some animal human
Or some sentient machine

Or alien to bring them
Into the realm of meaning.

And just what is attention?
Predatory, watching prey,

Prey intently listening?
It’s a sifting, the recent

Past drawn in for winnowing.
Attention is for something,

But can it be for something
Unknown in advance? Waiting,

Sifting passing sensory
Information, but for what?

It’s attention to nothing
That generates the meaning

People think of as meaning,
Not predatory, not prey

Attending to definite
Patterns. The unknowable

Haunting mere information,
That’s what attention encysts

In the hard galls of meaning.
For now, that’s all nothing means.