For seventeen years, we searched for the name
of the most mysterious song.
Three minutes long, muffled, the tempo warped,
the tape making artistic decisions with respect to the key.
The singer somewhat German, maybe Russian,
but otherwise their origin unknown,
delivering a lyric with lines left up
to the listener’s discretion,
cryptic choices and varied verses scattered
across online forums.
For seventeen years, we searched for the name
of the most mysterious song,
and it brought our minds together
to make sense of potential titles
and mull over leads of who the writer could be,
whose hollow voice would hold the key
to the song’s identity.
We sent out emails to senile singers
from the golden age of goth,
only to get confused replies and claims
of so-called wasted time.
For seventeen years, we searched for the name
of the most mysterious song,
the sweet krautrock beat having carved holes
in our curious hearts,
the hunt passing down through time
like red lines of string, linking and connecting
all our little clues, expanding ad infinitum
with no end in sight.
But one night, the name revealed itself,
an age-old cassette label spelling out
“SUBWAYS OF YOUR MIND”
in black text on a yellow background.
And after a suspicious listen, indeed
it was the song so many of us had gone down
so many mental tunnels
and spent so much of our lives
to find.
For seventeen years, we searched for the name
of the most mysterious song,
and if it took so long to search for something whole to fill our souls,
perhaps no similar journey
is worth sidestepping.
For now this jewel of a jam
finds its place among the people
who can provide it with the love
it never knew it lost,
instead of forever whistling
its mysterious melody through the digital wasteland
like the wind.
(November 6, 2024)