I-10 East Near Las Cruces, New Mexico (Late October)

// Wendy Gist

Billboard:
Akela Flats Trading Post.

Two out-of-state cars
exit for expensive gas, and, tempted,
buy junk-snakeskin earrings,
fudge or
maybe a glass scorpion.

Bugs splash on windshield.
Locals on radio broadcast
a longing for first frost
before the next song: Monster Mash.
RV hauls ebony Hummer,

and here now goes big rigs
churning out stinking vapors,
and a vintage turquoise
Cadillac Coupe de Ville
sparkling a yellow license plate.

Up ahead a flutter of birds helix
over yellow painted lines
back to orange-ing desert.

Border Patrol inspection,
cameras aimed at oncoming traffic,
cameras, cameras, cameras.
Ginormous roadrunner perches atop
rest stop hill,
sculpted from recycled trash.

Pecan orchard, the stench of sewer:
Almost there. At last!