how cheap is talk? 2023, originally written in 2013

 how cheap is talk?

they say that talk
is naught but cheap.
if true, could everyone afford
as much of it as they desired?
and chatter on devoid of care,
with neither rhyme nor reason?

or else, if our words
don’t mean a thing,
unless we put them into action.
thus, separating cheap from dear,
and talk from righteous deeds.
how can we ever freely speak
of our dreams, hopes and ideas?

would not the fear of failing
to fulfill anything spoken,
prevent most dialogue
from ever taking place
and what of those,
who’d be condemned by
past mistakes and human flaws,
to never-ending silence?
where would they stand?

in ancient times, before
we spoke in tongues galore,
what drove us to invent speech?
some men, one day, began to realize,
after returning from a myriad
of fatal bloody battles,
that there was hope, indeed,
of finding other means,
to settle feuds, and live!

since talking is what man now does 
in search of mutual understanding 

keeping in mind that words,

 as substitutes for deadly blows,

surely are "heaven-sent."

then how can talk,

with all its flaws,

be cheap, devoid of value?

                                

                     Corinne Wesley © 2013.