In the textile metaphors, events unfold,

in the weaving of reasons,

the early hours spread out like a bed throw,

things becoming visible in strings.

I had time after the first slight shadow

to look up to the cirrus sky

before the textured bird, fringed with oak,

passed into the sun

causing a minute eclipse like the big ones

when people panic to candles,

and night bloomers open their jasmines,

Bokaras and Turkomans,

dye yellow with urea and white egrets

bloom from the shuttle.

Allan Peterson’s second book of poetry, All the Lavish in Common, won the 2005 Juniper Prize and was released by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2006. Anonymous Or won the Defined Providence Press competition and was published in 2002. He also is the author of four chapbooks of poetry. His journal publications include Adirondack Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Bellingham Review, Gettysburg Review, Green Mountains Review, Natural Bridge, Perihelion, Prairie Schooner, Quarterly West, Shenandoah, and West Wind. In adition, Allan Peterson has been awarded fellowships from the Florida Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.