Chad and Hailey
These crosses in the ditch don’t say much More than their names and that They were killed at this intersection Where the county road has the decency to Stop and the highway the nerve to Keep going. I guess the crosses also say that They were together. They don’t say that Chad was driving the car he got for graduation, Though I seem to see his father dangling The keys teasingly over his palm. Nor do they say Hailey was sitting in the passenger seat, Though one can more or less assume that She was. It may be too much of a stretch to say that She was running her hand through his hair While he smoked a cigarette, or to say that They were in love. The crosses certainly don’t Say this. But they do say the date of the day They died, though I doubt that They died in the daytime. They died In the middle of the night, would be my guess. Nor do The crosses say where they were going, or why They were going there so fast, Though it’s pretty clear to me that They weren’t on the rude highway but On the courteous road, and that They hadn’t put these rumble strips in yet, The reason I slowed down enough to see them, The crosses, that is. But one doesn’t have to stop to know that Chad and Hailey didn’t.