long ago, there was that barn
where the bluebirds sang
and the light came through the rafters.
owls and bats were up there too
looking down on lovers in the hay
who were trying not to sneeze
long since, the barn
was wiped out by tornado
the old farmhouse burned down
and sunk into the ground
like the ancestors' graves in the woods,
overgrown in raspberry bramble
that children were warned to avoid
but they would go there anyways
to marvel at the old foundation
and the danger of it all
its where the berries tasted the best
there were bulls too to watch out for
and the smell of old horses long gone
in the old barnyard
of scattered wood