Contributor: Barbi Moroz

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Three men and I stood on a wooden deck
around midnight. They had cigarettes
to keep warm; I had a thin jacket.
I shivered and listened to them laugh about
a strip-pong game they’d witnessed
the night before. With my hands
deep in the pockets of my jacket, I thought
"These cigarette breaks happen too often."
The cold air wasn’t enough to quell their
need for nicotine.
The night sky was clear,
and an above-ground pool stood
as the centerpiece of the backyard.
With his head tilted toward the sky,
one of them said, “Look at that!”
A perfect circle surrounded a full moon
in the black sky. Though our limbs
were chilled, we tilted our heads back;
stared up into the night sky.
We marveled at the strange ring around
the white moon; tried to determine
its cause. A few minutes passed,
but cold overpowered the mystery.
Twilight Zone episodes echoed in our heads
as we entered the heated house. Despite
what we had imagined, a quick internet search
proved our marvel was only
a sign that a nearby storm was approaching.
Our spectacle was a common halo effect.


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I am junior in college pursuing creative writing. My poetry will soon be published in The Faircloth Review and Misfits' Miscellany.