Abiding Semanticity

The meanings go out together at dawn—
Or at midnight or some hour around noon—

Whenever they can get it together
To mean something in themselves that others

Might also find meaningful, instructive,
Even pleasurable. The meanings know

That they mean nothing by or to themselves,
And so they go out in search of vectors,

The lives that alone give meanings to them,
Without whom such meanings must mean nothing

And are nothing, being they are nothing
But meanings by definition. They shine,

Their faces to the sun—or to the moon
Or the street lamps or the headlights of cars—

And offer to abide on the behalf
Of the lives that give meaning life. They wait,

Meaningful glances, meaningful pauses,
Meaningful formal constructions at play.

Some of them get work as day laborers
And ride off in the backs of crowded trucks.

The rest get left, forget why they came—yet
Abide, in case someone comes to tell them.