Fall 2008, Volume 5

Poetry by Allan Peterson

Lyric

Something's got the Mergansers going:
                an opera  The chorus
diving and flapping like flightless maniacs
                Reminds me of a song:
If whiskey was a river and I was a diving duck
as if to say simplify  enjoy
throw up your hands to the waitress
                Dive Dive

A semaphore has three choices
                in infantile colors
Hold up the avenue is one  Green is vanish
like slugged shots
                Now the fishermen in slickers poling home
with the dead engine
pause to ask if I have an oar they could borrow
They move off singing caution
                pass the flask  It's dark at the bottom
and caked with weeds


BIO:  Allan Peterson is the author of two books: All the Lavish in Common (2005 Juniper Prize) and Anonymous Or (Defined Providence Press Prize ) and four chapbooks. Recent print and online appearances include: Gettysburg Review, Bat City, Salamander, Iron Horse, Segue, Caesura, Laurel Review. Work forthcoming in: Gulf Coast, Swink, Compass Rose, and Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry. A selection of poetry and vis-ual art is featured at www.uwf.edu/panhandler.