Words which speak louder

listen not
to the words, they
are only symbols, collecting
dust and soot, these words enter
and then they are gone, so easily lost
against the thumping pavement, these
eyes which squint but do not discern, these
truths left unfelt by calloused hands.

listen instead
to the thoughts, which
lie stooped by every doorstep,
wearing jackets that no longer fit,
their grounded hats turn up to face the sky,
listen to their
mumbo-jumbo, their crazy, their
talking selves, listen carefully to their
cracked lips, their smoke-stained shadows.

do not assume
that thoughts need food,
or homes, or even crumpled dollar signs,
do not offer
what cannot be received,
or given, or even promised in confidence,
remember
how sight deceives,
how truth often comes,
in lies dressed as thieves,
remember
that you are man, 
alone with your fellow thoughts,
that peace is singular, never plural,
that murals are many single scenes,
that memory fades until only
shared hands and 
regrets are
left.