Mean

It’s all there, all the time.
Penurious, stingy,
Vicious, mediocre,

Average, all of it.
Also, what do you mean?
Intention’s infinite

In its own way. What words
Mean tends to be distinct
For every fresh reader,

Never mind the authors’
Confusions of intent.
It’s delicious English,

This paronomastic
Layer cake of culture’s
Peculiar invention.

Other languages have
Their own ways to play on
The strangeness of meaning.

The point is not the word.
The word’s hardly a point
In the right direction.

We hover like water
Smoking out of the stones,
Drawn up into flying

Island clouds you call minds
To be released again
To mean, but not as meant.