Retreat - Poem

Literary Review, Wntr, 2004 by Thomas Halloran

Retreat

   The moon is spilled somewhat from full
   and rides in lemon-silver cirrus
   through the mild October evening,
   planets lined up pointing off to sea.
   We've gone inside, however, shut ourselves
   against a neighbor's burning: weed,
   plastic trash--things that smudge
   this numbered and escaping night.
   Downstairs, against the hour's hoarded hush,
   sends up a bass throb through the floor.
   Our world has shrunk tonight to snug unquiet
   and each other, to be tamed
   as if there were no hurtling skies,
   no time left but ours.

Thomas Halloran lives in California after teaching psychology at US facilities in Asia, and was one of the ten writers featured in the Fall 1999 issue of The Literary Review.