"Zion" by Travis Truax

The tall reeds along the riverare as tough as an old Ute’s wisdom.This world ends in sand, they say.The canyon wallsguide the pooling stars.Talkative curves in the riverwiden their mouths each year. Soonsand will cover the only road.Mule deer ford at a collection of rocksand forget the bridgewhere a hundred painters miss the right lightevery summer.Curling junipers lean from cliffstoward the river.Rock is a phase. Sand, too.And a good trail never ends. 

Travis Truax earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 2010. After college he spent several years working in various national parks out west, including Yellowstone, Zion, and Olympic. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Flyover Country, Quarterly West, Split Rock Review, The Flagler Review, The New Plains Review, and The Eastern Iowa Review. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.