Sam is poking the world
with his pointy finger
making it heed him
and uncover its secrets.
He points the way ahead,
the way up, the way down,
his eyes flashing recognition
of people, places, things:
A plane in the sky,
a door and a knocker,
a dog and a cat,
the moon and the stars.
Only a week ago
he was drawing circles,
saying ‘round and round’.
Today he points and says ‘circle’.
This twenty-first century child
Directs his naming finger
At the mass of things around him,
Harpooning them with nouns and verbs.
Sam is indexing the book of the world.