“Ochs Highway, 7:34 p.m.”
Book Excerpt: Titanfall
Ochs Highway, 7:34 p.m.
The sun sets grapefruit and apricot over the valley
Honeysuckle rhododendron mountain laurel
and the tourists’ burning brakes perfume the air
I glide through the curves
cortisol glides through my brain
I am in between
always coming and going always on my way
Out
My moving makes the world static
The great refraction suspends the mountain
Shadows below the long arm of the galaxy above
The air is a confection to cut through
I have left my love and hate
have not yet arrived at love and hate
The small things in the darkness sing eat sleep and die
Copyright © 2026 by Noah Soltau. Excerpted from Titanfall (Madville Publishing). Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Noah Soltau teaches about art, literature, and society to the mostly willing. He is managing editor of The Red Branch Review. Titanfall was shortlisted for the Arthur Smith Prize, and recent work appears in Cutleaf, storySouth, and elsewhere. Raised in Chattanooga, educated in the South and Germany, he lives with his wife and two daughters in East Tennessee.
