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 barbedwire

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