DAVID e. MORENO | ESPAÑOLA

ESPAÑOLA

Bury me

in a turquoise motel

with its vacant, white-washed swimming pool

and broken diving board.

Make me a cross

of faded plastic roses.

Print my epitaph

across a sun-bleached billboard

with 1950s graphics and peeling edges.

Let it look out over a lonely New Mexican highway

that I may watch the Sunday parade of low riders,

hear their hydraulic squeaks,

and the rumbling backfire of sand-blasted pickups.

Face me East

toward the snowcapped peaks of Truchas mountains.

Let my soul go out to them

through the gray veins of winter trees.

Let me sail over

parched Thanksgiving cornfields

and the scattered shards of the Ancients.

In summers to come

I will settle among giant

gnarled cottonwoods,

rustling and shimmering light back to the sun.

And, in autumn

when the cooler winds twist and jerk

the rusted chain-link sign at Vallecitos Ranch,

I will shake gold leaves from cottonwoods

like coins to the pockets of the earth

and

dream a

l o n g

s i l e n t

winter.

Former New Mexican David e. Moreno is a world-class yoga instructor, performing arts journalist, and dance critic whose varied careers have landed him in the New York Times, Esquire Magazine, and The Advocate.He has written for Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and LA Yoga Magazine. David also pens monthly reviews and commentaries for CultureVulture. His book, Lamps Without Shades: A Memoir of Mystical & Irreverent Incidents, will be published in 2024.