About the Author As a writer and teacher Hallie Moore is a west coast trained: Stanford BA,MA and Antioch Los Angeles MFA, but now lives on the Texas Gulf Coast. Moore's work has appeared in such print journals as Borderlands, Texas Review, Blue Mesa, Calyx, Spillway, Suddenly V, and several online publications such as The Adirondack Review, Moon Dance, Branches Quarterly,etc. Moore's current project is a chapbook entitled So Many Gods. Road Tag, The News, and Cross Hairs-- WWII and Others are Moore's first poems in Nuvein.

Stroke by stroke

my brush drags memories

from their roots

when my hair hung

waist long



at age four translucent

fine tangled gold,

combed hard each morning

divided in three strands:

hair, tears, and threats



for French braids, pulled,

arcing over my tormented scalp

lifting my eyes

in tight surprise.

I couldn't blink



until liberated

by war and mother's

patriotic choice

to surrender my hair

for gun sights.