The Red Wheel Barrow

The Red Wheel Barrow

When I was young and in my prime, I though that I could right
All the world of misery and fear and war and fright
I simply could not understand why folks did not agree
With all the brilliant activists that tried to set them free.

I chanced upon a shrunk old man beside a flowing stream
With continence of peace and joy and gaze like from a dream
I asked him why he did not fight the world to him unfair
He softly uttered these few words with a hundred mile stare

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens

Now what the hell is that supposed to mean I loudly cried
I could not understand his words no matter how I tried
You must be deaf or very strange or maybe quite insane
He looked at me with steady eyes and simply said again

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens

I left the old man by the stream and went to live my life
Full of work and happiness, turmoil, love & strife
I struggled hard to win the fights and tried to find my bliss
And everything I finally learned all comes down to this

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens

I’m getting pretty old now and deaths around the bend
I’m looking hard to find a way before the very end
To understand “The Moment” and live there all the time
While these wise words of comfort, drift across my mind.

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens

With Apologies & Thanks To William Carlos Williams