Gone

I heard about it by word of mouth, you know
The way gossip starts small as within a family
Then blows outward — picture an atom bomb
Mushrooming a blast of words past large, selective ears
The big wind of others’ bad breath blown a chorus

But I already knew the truth because a caged bird
Always singing in one place, the ways its song radiates
Rings expanding in a pool, your same succinct few notes
Pushing their way, my way, like a laser line of sound
Traveling so focused, you and I once living
On the same wavelength, long before crumbs of facts
And mostly fiction were broadcast to be pecked at and expelled

I knew the why and what you would be doing
Long before I heard you were gone