Solicit

In this city we
solicit each other
while ignoring.

Some ask for food
money on trains
Beg us to listen to their stories
make them visible for a moment.

Others solicit for a cause
reaching their hands out to touch
another in the crash of bodies.

The ask, simple as 'do you have a moment'
is heard in drips along the streets
and left for forgotten.

The crisis, the cause, the issue
to be defended
if only one would stop
sign the paper
listen to the worry
or the needs for that person
to speak to other people
to get paid that day.