For Richard Poem by Vonnie Postit

richard struggles in his life.
he's thought about running away
from this life every day this week.
he dreams of wide open spaces
and deep blue oceans.
he wants to find others like him;
he knows they're out there.

richard has trouble eating.
he is not the smartest,
but knows this,
and accepts it,
for he knows it does not really matter.

richard wishes he was not so helpless.
he craves the light but fears what comes with it.
he does not understand others; he never has.
how can they be so accepting
of their cages?

richard knows he was born to be a voyager.
people think he is uncivilized because he has
never dreamed of love,
he only knows that this, here,
is not right and he sees
dramatic change as the
closest thing to romance.

richard knows that perhaps he would die
from so dramatic of a change
sometimes he does not care,
and dreams of the end anyways.

i have seen a kind of desperation
in richard's eyes; i try to tell him i understand him
but he just blinks his days away;
stacking rocks, making walls.

still, to see richard dream
is to see a kind of magic.

tell me,
is richard animal or is he human?