When I ask a group of very young people-

who are back outside now under the sky

re-creating the weather in their

new-glazed imaginations-

"What depends upon 'a red wheel

barrow glazed with rain water beside

the white chickens'?" and

after we have all enjoyed the moment of

quivery silence we had all apprehended,

I like to ask

"What is the weather like? Describe the sky.'

And they argue among themselves:

"It's raining." "It's cloudy."

"No. The sun is out."

"How do you know?"

"Because of 'glazed'."

"Then it's sunny! "

"But then the wheel

barrow would be dry."

"The clouds are going away! "

So they go away and go look at the blue

sky with a gray horizon

and the green grass

and the white house and the red

barn and the brown road that

they walk on until they can turn

around and see the rest of

the painting. …