The eagle you spotted
may have been transporting
your deceased friend’s soul
to the spirit realm.
It brings to mind
a similar experience
Lisa and I shared
the day we interred
my oldest brother, Jack’s,
cremains in the rich red earth
of Henson Cemetery,
Red Springs, Texas.
Red as the earth of his grave
was the narrow dirt road
we had to drive to get there.
After the simple service,
as we headed down the road
to get back to the highway,
a jackrabbit appeared
as if from nowhere
and sat right in the middle
of the road. As it started
zigzagging ahead of us,
stopping, and zigzagging again,
we followed it for a mile
all the way to the highway
till it vanished in a thicket
of mesquite and prickly pear.
Each of us, independently
of the other, felt Jack’s spirit
in that black-tailed rabbit
leading us inexorably
onward through the joy-
and-sorrow thickets
of our lives.
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