by David K. Wheeler 

An irrigation ravine cleaves
the earth behind the stables.

They raised the roofbeam in ’83
but walls came late that decade.

Used for festivals and church,
it’s home to communal reverie:

where horses once watered
just outside the wide rear door

youth scoop glinting minnows
slip bank to bank and shout

while the elder folk keep time
inside. Their laughter echoes

against the wood grain, and I
hear clearly as I watch both

from the pale grassy landing
on the ravine side of the stable.

David K. Wheeler’s debut poetry collection, Contingency Plans was published by TS Poetry Press. His other writing has appeared in The Morning News, The Gay & Lesbian Review, TOSKA Magazine, Paradise Review, and others. He earned his BA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University, and now lives in Seattle.