Tonopah la: A Quarterly Journal of Prose and Poetry
This is Not State Route 95
Deb Scott


It would've helped
that marker set just past
a wrong turn and dust cloud
lonely   a limousine
plodding down a farm road
or a tractor ripping
up Interstate 40

It would've helped
but I thought I'd wander
looking for UFOs
shimmering on Searchlight
Highway somewhere north
of Needles   Henderson  
Vegas   It would've helped

told me where I wasn't
but my eye lost the road
sign    mirror's reflections
let loose my glance   This is
not State Route 95
too dim passing headlights
falter a narrow beam