While driving through the Southwest on a road trip across America, I was struck by the crosses that were a haunting part of the highway landscape.

I knew of them as descansos – a Spanish term used to describe a resting place. It was derived a long time ago, when there were no motorized vehicles and pallbearers on the way to their one-way journey left a cross at their resting place.

As I drove by these sacred memorials I couldn’t help thinking about what might have happened?

What were the stories attached to these crosses?

Who were the people?

How did they die?

Who did they leave behind?

Continuing on the road trip, I drove through Canyonlands and Bryce Canyon and spent the next day and a half writing in my car.

I imagined voices of the people who had lived their last breath along these roads and what they might have been saying and began writing as fast as I could to keep up with what I imagined they would say.

These ‘voices’ became poems of Las Cruces (the crosses).

I believe the emotions these crosses evoke in me are universal.

We can’t help but think of our own mortality and the lives that might have been; the people left behind…these crosses are reminders that life is precious.

I will be sharing some of these ‘resurrected’ images and poems from this body of work for the next few days.