TRAVIS TRUAX
SUMMER, JUST SOUTH OF NORRIS, MONTANA
All day the low crop dusters
ride the sky above us,
humming past potato farms
and old homes,
skimming power lines
like clouds above the mountains.
We work in a yard south of Norris,
trimming back
the past year’s growth,
raking the mess into the truck,
slowly breathing life
into a few parched aspens.
We sweat at noon
when the sun finds us—
tree after tree
piled by the chipper.
Next door
a few ranch-hands
walk copper stallions
down the hill
to where a dark pond shines.
Two colts behind steel pipe
watch like children
as the older ones are led away.
Travis Truax earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 2010. Travis's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ascent, Raleigh Review, Hippocampus, Barnstorm, and The Cossack Review. Currently he is in Bozeman, Montana.