For Sale
The sweet smell
of cured tobacco eases
out the barn’s door
into winter’s wind.
It holds odds
and ends of farm life,
a rust ladened disc plow,
an ancient toilet,
and sap encrusted hatchets
that once rang in the fields.
A stack of standing sticks
slumps in the back corner.
In earlier times, the barn held
tobacco ladened poles
hanging from the bars.
Today, not much is left
of the hanging structure.
The barn looks out over
empty fields. Little Blue Stem
grows where cows
grazed. Wind rustles
dried stalks.
Snow crusts the ground.
Half-barrel water troughs
reside on their sides
along with ones that held corn.
Barb-wired fence sags
between cedar posts.
A “For Sale” sign hangs
by the open gate 100 ac +/-.
Soon bull dozers and backhoes
will populate the fields,
tearing the ground to build
houses with ten acres each.
The tobacco scent and echoes
of cattle will disappear
under the smell of diesel
and truck’s growl.
New Croton Review
Aug 2023
