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