Across the highway an old barn holds fast

to valued ground. Cars pass, houses grow

on nearby lots. Barely-red barnboards advertise,

without warning, the blues of Kentucky Club Tobacco

long after payments cease, smokers pass on.

Road dust clings to bushes dew-laced with spidery webs.

Once orange vine-berries droop sun-dried and brown.

Winter's feathered survivors huddle under eaves,

beneath cracked, falling siding, calling

for lost days, shivering against changing winds.

Dr. Hazel Smeltz-Fisher
Bucks County Community College