I value you (poem)

I want to value you.

The side-walk-sitting boys, hands blue

from the cold they could not avoid.

I want to value you.

Short-girl-smoke-filled unsure of where she calls home and desperately searching

to belong.

I want to value you.

Aged hands holding desperately to a listening ear, “please

come near and do not leave me”,

wisdom and whithering years intwined.

I value you.