What then mattered now that I know what I knew then

What then mattered now that I know what I knew then

...the house on the hill,
august grasses wave over rounded california hills
and in the hollows and on the hills forests of fir, pine, and oak
in the thickets of blackberries, rusted barbed wire hangs from rotting posts
the mosquito creek flows over mossy stones and the spider's skein
lit red in the light of the sun over the darkened boles

...the mare in the field,
the pasture of heated grasses, the whirr of hoppers,
the pond fed by seeps, laden with spring peepers,
old apple trees, blackened and fallow, curl over the root cellar of the shack
birds tweet from high wires, the springer's leap,
the feet bounding over sedge tussocks and the laugh of the friend.