After Thoughts About William Poem by RIC BASTASA

did i tell you that in this life what we see is what we get?
like william's
red wheel
barrow

words are things
and things are words
interchangeable

you see what i see
but what i see need not be what you know
and what you know
need not be seen by me

just like a red
wheel
barrow beside the
white
chickens

it is great

behind the lines is this child's death
eyes closing
forever

you stand by the side of the window
helplessly looking somewhere where you become nothing
but
this speck of dust

falling on that red
wheel
barrow glazed by rain
water beside the white chickens

a thought falling
endlessly on a chasm that sinks deep within you

helplessly, you,
just stand there for in truth we are here just to see how things come and go

and then we go too, like the white chickens