A Season to Remember
A Barn at Night
November 5, 1993
There is something peaceful about a barn at night,
something musical in all the ordinary sounds
as animals in random weariness settle down.
With rhythmic chewing of cuds,
drowsing cattle drop ponderous bodies
on bedding straw crackling,
their busy innards rumbling
in harmony with saddle ponies munching
last morsels of grain from feedbox corners,
while prowling cats rustle across the hay,
eyes radar-beamed for careless mice.
Slumbering pigeons rouse on lofty perches
and coo contentedly in the cupola,
as moon ribbons glisten through frosted windows
stirring faint shafts of light into soft shadows,
gathering in all the busy peacefulness
of a barn at night.