JACOB MARTINEZ
Pueblo, Colorado
About Jacob Martinez
Wide Open Pastures
Jasper’s muscles flexed as each hoof
hit the hot shale of July. As seasoned ranchers,
we directed these free-minded paints
with a solid metal spur to the torso.
Wind whirled through Arapaho Canyon
sending dust, tumbleweeds, the scent of money
directly into the nostrils after the
horses rounded up the cattle into small groups
like cubbies of quail. Bulls, heifers, and calves
of all sizes trotted towards the corrals
my great grandpa built with his work-beat hands.
Today was work, work I love. Cattle
pressured into chutes by whips and whistles,
as hair singed for possession and smoke rose. Bleats
echoed across the canyon walls as hot iron penetrated
the rumps. The aroma could be smelled
for miles. The sun sank behind peaks in the west
as the dust settled, closing the day of inherited passion.
© 2009, Jacob Martinez
These lyrics may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.
Jacob comments: "Wide Open Pastures" was a poem that I wanted to represent the true hard work my father and I perform as modern ranchers. The work is tough and within the poem I strove for details to give people a glimpse of the cattle business in the most realistic ways possible.
About Jacob Martinez:
Jacob Martinez is pursuing a Bachelors degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing at Colorado State University-Pueblo. When not busy with school he devotes his time to ranching nearly fifty head of cattle with his father on their 220 acre ranch located in Avondale, Colorado. He has lived in Pueblo, Colorado all his life.
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