Hiking through tall grass prairies on a rain-soaked day, I spied two giant trees in the middle of the American moor, one cottonwood and one maple, standing six stories tall on an else-wise arborless hill.  I leaned against the cottonwood for a long time, hugging its circumferences in an attempt to a get a grip on its girth.  I figured my arms outstretched equaled my six-foot height.  That’s what they told me in Health Class anyway.

My measurement for the cottonwood came in at 24 feet around.  That couldn’t be.  I must be shrinking.

I walked on, surveying willows and cottonwoods sipping up the watercourse at the base of the hill.  I rounded the hillock and looked up to the ridge where the trees stood.  I realized I’d never see them again.

At the bottom, a buffalo trail spiraled back up the hill, so I climbed back up in the languid drizzle, through rust-shirted fells weaved in Turkeyfoot and Big Bluestem mixed in with compass plants, beneath the heavy sky, beneath nothing more.  Back on the hilltop topped by one maple and one cottonwood, the warming southeast wind escorted the sea in its warm, sheeted breathe all the way from the Gulf of Mexico.  The old cottonwood and the maple waved their bones in the wind.  I waved back.  I never know when things say goodbye forever.

I walked off the unnamed field in the Great Plains, far from the highways and towns. I know that when I leave, I’ll never be back again. I never know when things say goodbye forever.

© 2022 by Michael C. Just

Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.

You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23

Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002

Four of his short stories have recently been published online:

Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)

The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW

I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October

Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within