Highway 124, after a death

John Rutherford

September 3, 2023

When the great-aunt died, we seized the day,

used up some banked vacation-leave,

and drove down Highway 124.

We passed through Cheek, Fannett,

and Hamshire, kept on going

past the farms and teeming bayous.

As the trees shrank into brush,

the combover on the balding dunes,

we stopped at the sargassum-orange sea, the beach.

Barefoot we stalked the sand,

seashells crunching beneath our feet,

watching the waves off Highway 124.

We stayed an hour, perhaps a little more,

saying our farewells where she’d be scattered,

our tears spent, returning home among the green.

John Rutherford works in the English Department at Lamar University. His work can be found in the Concho River Review and The Basilisk Tree.