Ronald Moran has published poems in Commonweal, Connecticut Poetry Review, Louisiana Review, North American Review, Northwest Review, South Carolina Review, Southern Poetry Review, Southern Review, Tar River Poetry, and elsewhere, for which he has won awards. His latest book of poetry, Waiting, was issued by the Clemson University Digital Press in 2009. He is retired from Clemson University where he served as both a professor and dean. Moran lives in Simpsonville, SC.
Spring 2010
Table of Contents - Vol. VI, No. 1
Ronald Moran
During Happy Hour I was sitting at a bar drinking
Beefeaters
on the rocks, with a splash of water, when a woman
next to me,
mid-forties, I guess, very attractive and sensual,
turned to me,
exhaling a long blue cloud, and said, I like being wet,
to which,
I had nothing to say, not knowing what she meant,
but thinking,
of course, as one might be conditioned to at a bar,
maybe sex.
No, she can’t be coming on to a bald 73 year old,
so I lifted
my glass, touched hers, and said Prosit, and we sat,
until the good life,
or something similar, called her away and she never
returned,
leaving behind a scent that titillated and aroused.
I never saw
her again and never will, and I am wondering now,
Did she speak
to me, or did I drift off momentarily, the fantasy
of a man alone?
© Ronald Moran
