Allan Peterson

ALMOST NOWHERE

I look through the cedars from midair

I do not want to see highways

not even the one I came in on I do not

want to see people traveling or arriving

or using hand soap packaged for Amtrak

I want wilderness

going both ways coming out of itself

like the windows and the mirrors

as landscape passes on the train

Now I am almost nowhere I know of

I am almost leaving one house for another

when one of my ghosts appears in a window

Maybe many of me have left this way

without saying though I am not lighter

nor have I moved

Author Bio

Allan Peterson’s Omnivore was recently released from Bateau Press after winning their BOOM chapbook competition. All the Lavish in Common, his last full-length collection, won the 2005 Juniper Prize. Recent print and online appearances include: Gulf Coast, Northwest Review, Blue Fifth, Oranges & Sardines, Notre Dame Review. Work forthcoming in Shenandoah, Denver Quarterly, Paris Review. Recent prizes include the 2009 Dos Cosas Award, the 2008 American Poet Prize.