Ghost Grand Battue

How big would the library
Of lost language have to be?
All the morphemes ever were,

All syntax, signs, and whistlings,
All the symbolic gestures—
All the ones now lost that is—

How much would that amount to?
Everyone grab beating sticks.
Make a ring around each pole,

Then move to the equator,
Battering every meter,
A chivaree for each wave.

When all the ghosts have flown up,
Net them, tell us what you’ve learned.