Tennessee’s Bell Buckle and a child on Christmas day

an
orange
some
walnuts
       could be
       pecans
and I imagine looking toward a barn
and once the chores
to look in peace
special
that day

scrubby fields
       maybe
       snow-covered
house the way houses are in that
part of the region
and
the nation
in the standings
in the time

is there room
in the house
in the barn
over
the fields

for hope
for moving away should there be the slightest more

one year
and
having grown
to do so

c l couch


briefly about my mother who grew up as a child not of but in the Depression

photo by Markus Petritz on Unsplash