Lines on a Carthorse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

I wonder...how many of us pause every now and then to look at something (or someone) and see something (or someone) else?

Photo (Internet)

LINES ON A CARTHORSE

Green patch, bursts of sunshine,

retired carthorse munching

contentedly away at a spread

of dandelions

Light breeze in a solitary ash

washing down a dusty heart

with tactile thoughts inclined

to haunt like romantic songs

played on your guitar dedicated

to the pair of us, could well

be now, fancying that I glimpse

a lock of red hair at the edge

of a teasing, passing cloud whose

oh, so-familiar ears, eyes,

nose, lips, turned to another

I didn’t see what was happening,

lost sight of listening, forgot 

to look at what I saw, mistook hazy

infringements of personal space

for a lazy contentment, happiness

unaffected by the world beyond

that perimeter fence I constructed

with loving care, either assuming

we'd want the same things or maybe

too scared to ask, unknowingly

afraid of getting it wrong, ending

up alone

Retired carthorse, last seen munching

on dandelions by a solitary walker

shot down in a green patch by bursts

of sunshine

Copyright R. N. Taber 2004; 2010

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Observing Life, Anchor Books [Forward Press] 2000 and The Third Eye by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004; revised version appears in CC & D poetry magazine, Scars Publications, U S., 2010.]