Where the spirits left

Down at the fenceline,
next to the memorials and looking up
toward the highway,
parallel arced tracks show where the spirits –
freed on impact – left their containers
and fled, up the rise, gaining
speed, creating loft,
until at the crown of the road, they lifted off,
catapulting themselves
into the sky,
to become
stars, clouds, shades of blue, the moon.

Flung skyward, these spirits are
pollux, elnath, arrakis, sadalbari;
cumulonimbus, mammatus, pileus;
cerulean, azure, lapis, or sapphire;
long nights moon, the moon of winds,
the moon of red grass appearing:
each a memory watching over who was left behind.

State Highway 17
Jeff Davis County, Texas