“In the Light of Common Day” by Paulette Callen

The old barn sags with memories
of horses.
                        A skeleton key hangs
in the gloom — what needed
opening is lost.
                        Cracked and dull
a harness clings to horsehairs
like an old woman clings
to mementos of a useful life.

Displacing horses —
descendants of Model T
left stains in forever
dark circles on the
cement floor.
                        Listen!
All that is gone
is here. Dust
in streams of light.

Paulette Callen has returned to her home state of South Dakota in retirement, after 30+ years in New York City. Varying degrees of culture shock in both directions — but always, the place she returned to has been made home by a dog.