WTF?

Really now, this is how it is.
It is a pipe, coming out of a wall.
You can tell by the drips coming off it.
They are on the bottom, just dripping.
It comes out of a brick wall into an alley.
But why on earth would it do that?
Did it used to go into the building?
Or was it coming out of there?
What did it carry in or out?
Who put it there, and when?
And that is the weirdness of artifacts.
This looks almost new with very little rust.
We think we can piece together ancient things.
A couple of pottery fragments and we understand.
A whole society made up from a scratch on a brick.
Yet I don't even know what this pipe did.
Hey, maybe I don't know how ancient people lived.