loose sand on highway

Red sand rises up,
hovering above the rough asphault,
a silken scarf at play about
the wanton fingers of the October breeze.

It is a fluid shimmer, a cobra of color
side-winding down the freeway avoiding cars
and monstrous eighteen-wheelers-
all predators out to do it harm.

An echo of life, shifting, surly and determined.
Not content to concede and confident in its purpose
as it slithers in foreign territory
on an overcast October day.

Now sliding to the right-of-way
for a smooth attack on the grass,
it disperses about the sloth of thick black clay
and is seen no longer.