2 December 2003 | Vol. 3, No. 4
Don't Forget Us
Autotomy in spiders is a voluntary act.
With such surprises, anticipation should have them
humming like the truck of wear-dated carpet
that idled all night in the Hardee's parking lot.
Yesterday at the falls above the old quarry
a man put a running shoe on his plastic leg
for a fleet and normal look the way poetry evokes things
only potentially there, things attached for survival.
Then what was taken from the cliff became a lake
bathers spun down to on a single string.
What comes after is unknown, how a spider throws a leg,
us leaving our pennies where they fall.
What could it cost the present if a few heads were missing,
discovered eventually black as frostbite,
meaning don't forget us, we are leaving things behind.
About the author:
Allan Peterson's most recent book, All the Lavish in Common, won the 2005 Juniper Prize and was published in April. He is also the author of Anonymous Or and four chapbooks. The most recent, Any Given Moment, is available as a free download from Right Hand Pointing. His poem "Going Octopus" recently won the GSU Review competition, judged by Stephen Corey, and his poem "Antipyretic" won the Muriel Craft Bailey award from the Comstock Review, judged by Thomas Lux.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Allan Peterson at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 3, No. 4, where "Don't Forget Us" ran on December 2, 2003. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
