The Old Ranch Down the Road

There’s an old ranch down the road

A sometimes refuge from the snow

Feel its soft-hard shrubs

Scrape at your feet

Hear cracked windows whistling

There’s an old ranch just down the road

Where I grew up, or so I’m told

Landscaped with mountain silhouettes

Where forest-fire memories glow

With things I felt there long ago

There’s an old ranch just down the road

Mostly prairie dogs live there now

There’s one fertile mound

Of innocent, yearning sand

Buried by ephemeral-dusted badlands

There’s an old ranch down the road

Deceptive, seemingly hallowed ground

Be careful now, don’t stay too long

It may shelter you from cleansing rain

But it won’t shelter you from pain

It won’t shelter you from pain

No, it will never shelter you from pain