Thrush Poetry Journal
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Allan Peterson

Encounter

Latin intones the names

wing remiges tail retrices

manus hand in the bird instead of

conversely

that sat before me and sang 

unaccompanied.

I was a post  harmless 

dark debris beside the stairs 

I could have reached out 

I could have said 

from the standpoint of the bones

your wing is my hand

and I remember this spring 

when the rat snake ate your babies 

I imagine I’d sound

god-like  friendly  like the big-hearted 

helicopter

repeating a name above the house

fircula fircula 

me fingering wishbones like a madman.




Allan Peterson's fourth book, Fragile Acts, is the second title in the new McSweeney's Poetry Series and a finalist for both the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award and the Oregon Book Award. His last book is As Much As from Salmon Press, 2011. Other books are All the Lavish in Common (2005 Juniper Prize), Anonymous Or (Defined Providence Prize 2001) and five chapbooks, notably Omnivore, winner of the 2009 Boom Prize from Bateau Press. His next book, Precarious, is forthcoming from 42 Miles Press in 2014.




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