Snow beside the Shed

Stood high and weightless until marked by manure

as we led out the stock. Mud sometimes

cooked through the hoofprints

and tracks the truck cut to the crib.

Cold nights cleaned the sheet again with frost,

but sun rethawed it sensitive to trash.

Then a heavy freeze sealed all

in a pavement complex as the floor of archaeology.

Dulled and thick with sleet

the bed lasted until March.

When all else was opened by rot

it kept history in the bright shadow.