Ash

"Love Less Ash" reads a shop sign
Visible from the highway

Slightly south of Price, Utah.
Whatever this means is just

A matter of perspective:

Who you were when you glimpsed it,

How you traveled, what you knew,

Whether or not you liked puns,

Whether you liked words at all,

Or ashes, or irony,

Or omens, or mining towns,

Or the Loveless family

Whose kids you went to school with,

Whose Dad once caught you smoking.

It gets darker as you drive,

At least from the perspective

Of earth that spins more slowly,

Which you know, but don't notice.

Above the highway, the stars

And a couple of planets

Offer their appearances

That look like constellations,

Rotating over your head.

The names of constellations

Are as silly as shop signs,

Conventional as pronouns

Preferred by lyric poets,

As real as your given name.