For Sale<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sweet smell<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of cured tobacco eases<\/p>\n\n\n\n
out the barn\u2019s door<\/p>\n\n\n\n
into winter\u2019s wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It holds odds<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and ends of farm life,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a rust ladened disc plow,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
an ancient toilet,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and sap encrusted hatchets<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that once rang in the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A stack of standing sticks<\/p>\n\n\n\n
slumps in the back corner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In earlier times, the barn held<\/p>\n\n\n\n
tobacco ladened poles<\/p>\n\n\n\n
hanging from the bars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, not much is left<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of the hanging structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The barn looks out over<\/p>\n\n\n\n
empty fields. Little Blue Stem<\/p>\n\n\n\n
grows where cows<\/p>\n\n\n\n
grazed. Wind rustles<\/p>\n\n\n\n
dried stalks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Snow crusts the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Half-barrel water troughs<\/p>\n\n\n\n
reside on their sides<\/p>\n\n\n\n
along with ones that held corn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barb-wired fence sags<\/p>\n\n\n\n
between cedar posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A \u201cFor Sale\u201d sign hangs<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by the open gate 100 ac +\/-. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon bull dozers and backhoes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
will populate the fields,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
tearing the ground to build<\/p>\n\n\n\n
houses with ten acres each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tobacco scent and echoes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of cattle will disappear<\/p>\n\n\n\n
under the smell of diesel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and truck\u2019s growl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Croton Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aug 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Sale The sweet smell of cured tobacco eases out the barn\u2019s door into winter\u2019s 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,… Continue reading For Sale<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-published-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}