WHAT’S A BARN ABOUT
If it’s a barn that has been abandoned, it’s about the story. Who built the barn? When? Why? And why was it abandoned? Abandoned barns have a sadness about them, and this sadness can often be seen in the position of windows, in the sag of a roof, in the absence of a wall, or in the way that vegetation slowly covers its deteriorating facade. Sometimes their slowly eroding walls stand resolute in the face of repeated sunrises and snow squalls. Other times, they stand in the corner of a field, like a weary pugilist after a long fight with the elements, complete with pug nose and a smile of broken teeth. Some stand, dismayed and wide-eyed, that “Bugg was here” but then left again. Others, bereft of even the simple decencies of doors, stand exposed, showing remnants of a life that once was. One, standing serenely at the top of a hill with its arched peaks straining towards the heavens, appeared to be dreaming of white clapboards, hymn books and ordered rows of pews.
