While listening to someone sing

I don't want
anything or need to know

anything, either.  Leave
leave me alone.  Yeah, yeah I hear
the singing but who

cares that I do or cares if

some bonehead asks
(about the song)
is it

immortal?  Of course

it's not, but even if
it was, how
could I
reconstruct in my mind
why it is?  Even

the most discerning ear
doesn't survive
long enough
to listen long enough
to figure out
such things.  Therefore

I want
nothing, there being
nothing I need
to know
beyond this -- the ear's

mortality.
Consequently, songs that arrive
only half-alive
& deformed, as if

with misshapen skulls and withered
calves and thighs, possess
the only lyrics
I can grasp, their words strapped

into leg braces that
weigh too much to let
the music roam
too far from home, let  alone

rise above
the ground.