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.

Star shine bright enough

casts boneless cedar limbs

in silhouette over the road

where we play tag in the July night.

Giddy with the game and anticipation

of headlights bearing down

on our soft bodies,

we race about and shriek

as a car swerves and, yes, swipes our backs.

In a split moment we know a new language,

words for great heaviness hurling past our bones,

for mad fear breaking in our chests,

before we fling into the ditch a muddle

of bare legs and flailing arms. We hoot and roll

our close call into each other before yelling out

"Not It !" again.