Joint Membership

i finally saw how hopes and dreams
can crowd out what matters most..
how you can look so far beyond your own life, that you stop living.
its a simple word, a simple fragment of a sentence, something you never read, something someone told you and you neglected to hear.
a fire burned out , the charred remains tell you nothing of what it means to be warm
the empty pack of cigarets, sliding along a flowing stream underfoot
caught
in the wedge of a tire and a crack in the sidewalk, nothing in this pack, nothing can tell you of blue smoke and long evenings of conversations, stretching into morning, stretching into weeks
just as a knowing glance, or a smile as you turn away, can tell me nothing of lions roaring in the jungle, and distrustful eyes, scanning the trees.
the only words you hear are from yourself and even then, I rarely pay attention.