the uses of music

that you must not touch the gong
or hear any music at all
or open the keyboard in high places
that it might be heard

    to this the answer might be
    you do not know the gong
    what do you know about music
    why should you be heard
    better no music at all

typically this is the antiphony
of allegations and colloquies
to tell the whole truth among other things

    and we have told that all over the place
    hither and yon but we are preoccupied
    and do not hear ah
    returns the theme da capo

fiddlesticks says the lionbeard of China
fiddlesticks says I the waverish Mekong Delta
and all that jazz listen here the rustling of rice fields

paddies up or down along the land and the sour
apples of production not for use
but catalogued and stored all the same
that there may be said to have been there all the time
no matter what they said it was a laugh