Hearsay Song

They are dying out and I want to reach them before they are gone Not that I know what I would say to them when I get there Their songs rippling beneath temporary sky As I approach, as I am doing now Even though I am nowhere near wherever they are Swirling in blossoming dust and dreaming they are not They are dying out and I want to reach them before they are gone Just as I want to reach myself before I too am gone Another blossom sliding into slime What notes do I hear drenched in fiery sky Are these ghosts rising up before me Or gasps of dust near a lake covered by algae They are dying out and I want to reach them before their names vanish Before they become ghosts dying in pink algae and ruined vowels Not that I know what their songs say Telling sting of monstrous human torrent Wheeling above burning story of lost lives Tapering branches of smoke, red and yellow leaves falling They are dying out and I want to reach them Before my name joins theirs in plastic matrimony Before a blue-eyed undertaker powders my nose Or I turn to powder in squirt gun of unprofitable insects Secrets folded away never rinsed in scum corner History erasing traces of its nothing new