COME, YOU SILLY, DON'T YOU KNOW...

Come, you silly, don't you know,
When you go and I go,
There will be another show
With new acts and new motifs--
Our words like fallen leaves
Will descend upon the ground,
They will die without a sound--
Like a flame that's bright and brief.

Come, you silly, don't you know,
When you go and I go,
There will be more average Joes
With new sets of old beliefs,
Our words will disappear
In a crowd of deaf ears--
Like a flame that's bright and brief.

Come, you silly, don't you know,
It won't matter where we go
From this world of joy and grief--
Our words will still ring loud
In seclusion, in a crowd,
In the libraries and bars,
Our words like horns of cars
Will ring loud and disappear--
Sometimes there, sometimes here--
Like our life that's bright and brief.
 

                                                March 21, 1996
                                           --Alexander Shaumyan