The Barn

by Greg Bernhardt

What has happened

to the world?

they call out.

Where there used to

be all green

there is only white.

They go to the barn

which is their temple now

and receive the offering

but as some chew

the hay before them

they remember their cousins

out there in the wild:

deer, nibbling circles

around tree trunks,

and wonder if

they too could

find sustenance out

in the barren

landscape or

are they, forever, to

return to the large red cathedral.