wildflowers white crowd the worn old fence
a decadent great oak out back of the corral
grass and scrub stretching to the distant line of trees
along the river

                                             blue sky warm sun
                                            snow still under the oak
                                            a foal learns to run along a new fence
                                            out the gate a trail winds
                               through budding scrub and down along the river

carragana hollyhocks and dandelions wild
bar the leather-hinged door
missing chinks ignite motes
stirred at her intrusion
of farmhouse solitude

                                                 new hinges shine
                                                 children and the big old dog
                                                 in the yard chasing chickens
                                                 pigs disgruntled at the trough
                                                 bloomings ordered all about

untamed tangles sheds
and derelict contraptions
in gnarled disintegration
a torn hoof trapped and scored
in the overgrown barbed wire
her tears fall

                                                    a stag stands unafraid
                                                    lowers his head browsing
                                                    in the shade of the oak
                                                    where grass grows lush
                                       the squirrels rush about retrieving hidden stores

and sitting on that worn old fence, Lucy

                                                    __ dreaming