Concrete Words

There’s room for words.
Words to trickle down the sidewalk
Sputtering through the crosswalk, across the city.
Words giggled from friends in the shadows,
Spewed by enemies in the light.
Muttered by strangers filling the lines
At subway turnstiles,
Filing up stairs to brightened skies.
Whimpers and bellows from children,
Yanked across the city in herds.
The whispers of lovers coupled on park benches,
Taxis, outdoor cafes, under umbrellas
Faces ever so close, divulging secrets and smiles.
Misguided anger shouts from behind windshields
As the traffic stops and goes, inching onward.
Spray paint reminders dangle colorfully
On garage doors and billboards.
Advertisements linger everywhere
Encouraging, reassuring, insisting, persuading.
Silent motivators floating everywhere...
Pamphlets handed out on street corners
Flutter helplessly into the crowd
Their words lost…ignored by most.
Priests and missionaries hover on subway cars
Near intersections, in front of houses of worship
Beckoning with words of the past and the future.
The orchestrated begging on train cars,
From the familiar faces in need,
We offer our pennies for a few moments of silence
As the passenger cars whiz around tunnels
Offering requests of their own in the form of screeches.
The words of the city are traveling,
Between tourists and local lips
Across poverty and borough lines
Down through the tunnels, skipping through the parks
Echoing as it traverses across the bridges
Into far away lands