The Barn Owl by Ted Kooser

My thanks to Lynne from Hastybrook for e-mailing a 'Valentine' poem "The Barn Owl" by Ted Kooser (United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 - 2006) which we think provides an appropriate link to the previous post, albeit a few weeks late!

High in the chaffy, taffy colored haze of the hayloft,
up under the starry nail-hole twinkle of the old tin roof,
there in a nest of straw and bailing twine I have hidden my valentine for you:
a white heart woven of snowy feathers in which wide eyes are welcome
open to you as you climb the rickety ladder to my love.
Behind those eyes lies a boudoir of intimate darkness, darling, the silks of oblivion.
And set like a jewel dead center in the heart is a golden hook the size of a finger ring,
to hold you always, plumpest sweetheart mouse of mine.