HAYES MOORE - Miami University

HAYES
MOORE

Segue 7: Fall 08
© 2008 Segue online literary journal
ISSN 1939‐263X
All rights reserved. This publication may be freely distributed only in its entirety and without modification, and only
for private use. It may not be sold for profit. Excerpts may only be reproduced and distributed with permission
from the copyright owners, except for classroom use or in the case of brief quotations used for book reviews and
interviews. The creative works published in Segue do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of its staff
or of Miami University.
Issue 7 Fall 2008
Editor: Eric Melbye
Managing Editor: Michelle Lawrence
Segue is published once a year in August. We accept submissions of high quality fiction, poetry, and creative
nonfiction between August 1 and April 30 (closed May through July), and writing about writing year‐round via
email. Before submitting, please read past issues to understand the sort of work we publish, then read our
submission guidelines.
Segue
www.mid.muohio.edu/segue
Miami University Middletown
www.mid.muohio.edu

Segue 7: Fall 08
CONTENTS
Gaming Romantic 4
Author Notes 5
iii

Segue 7: Fall 08
Gaming Romantic
Nyzhnyk’s teddy bear whispered knight takes queen, and so I did so.
It’s not like this comes easily, not like sleep or gravity, not like the words
To that one song, so simple, simple, so true, or was it the other way around,
Not to mention the tune, never the same twice, though differently than a river
Like the Hudson that ran beside us, smelling like we smelled, heavily breathing
Like we breathed. These brackish straits burning my eyes are not like
The harmony that was so easy and easily lost. Sport comes more naturally. Buy a
New shirt, look good for summer. Keep swinging. Eyes on the ball. Go long.
A lob followed by a hard, two-wall-corner-shot will usually do the trick, particularly
Lategame. Nyzhnyk’s brilliance is magic. His bear not so much so. Like wild horses
In a blazing barn, sugarless and neck-nuzzling, fuck or be fucked with shafts of fire
Which is less a choice than a low killer that doesn’t bounce, just rolls, and there’s
nothing left but momentum.
Hayes Moore 4

Segue 7: Fall 08
Author Notes
Hayes Moore moved from NYC to Cambridge to finish up a dissertation last fall. After a long
hiatus, he began submitting creative writing last winter. He has had poems published in Graffiti
Rag and MaryMark Press. Segue is his first on­line publication.
About the Work
“Gaming Romantic” came into its final draft through an unusually clear process for me. I
was reviewing a collection of random poetic scraps, lines, images, anecdotes, ideas, and saw that I
had accumulated a number of gaming motifs that seemed to reflect some truism or another about
romance. I pieced them together and in that first draft I recall references to football, baseball, track
and field, bobbing for apples, table-top RPGs, and of course chess. I tried mixing the images up in
different ways, as non-sequiturs, maxims, a narrative, and as a sex scene told in sporty euphemism.
Indecision ruled the editor and the more-or-less penultimate draft was a confused hodge-podge
with a nice rhythm and some striking images that made no sense but seemed like they were trying
to. I work-shopped it with the friendly and insightful people in Charles River Writers, a Boston
based poetry club. I took copious notes during the workshop. As an experiment, I tried to follow
every suggestion they offered. When advice conflicted, I opted for the suggestions that were closest
to what I had already drafted. The result was the current, final draft.
Hayes Moore 5