Place as Metaphor

Relinquish 

The girl and her pony
long absent

in addition to any
utility for this place.
 Now capturing
only shadows
and the occasional
interest of
passing crows.
Wind-packed snow

under Sorel boots

cracks like the small caliber gunfire
of a distant neighbor
who shoots snowshoe rabbits
from his brush piles.
Late afternoon stillness-
a prelude to the

harshness of  the coming
starless and bible black sky

invites a contemplation of
this paradox in containment
and suggests tacitly
that the dream is over.

K. Carter