Heading South, Part Two

Approaching Las Cruces

Forward, a horizon of jagged Organs
mountains thrusting and bold.
Mirrored behind--matriarchal calderas
shrunken, grown cold.
  

Local geology from a billboard:
"Fireworks!"  Hell, yes.
Explosive in the Pleistocene,
culminating with life, 

 

Proclaims the yellow egg water tower,
its "Zia" glyph a sacred quatrain:
north, south, east, west
childhood, youth, adulthood, age.

My wheels crest a valley
green carpeted with sons and daughters
circumferenced by mothers and fathers
and soon, one more grandparent.

Life pushes forth and wears down. 
Billboard: "Excellence in Vein Treatment" 
before crossing the Rio Grande artery
flowing now, dry soon.

Opposing lines joined just beyond the middle, 
The Cross, another quatrain and crucial reminder:
Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter,
four seasons to a life.

There's a cross street ahead
and I'm slowing down.
Youth intersects age,
one season rolls into the next.

                   
Las Cruces, New Mexico, June 1st, 2014