one of the wonderful things about bloggering, is when you meet new virtual flokz.. and they do woondrfl wrk... well I get to post it.. so please see below.. this Tim Peterson is someone to watch out for... or look for or read or something.....



Embarrassment of Riches
Tim Peterson

The grotesque imbalance of powers fuels my morning walk: azaleas, blue phlox, curbside junk. The careers of several generals winding up in the "cult status" bin, partially on account of the long night and a Lexus SUV. Part the mysterious foliage of a potted plant in the company hallway.

No harbingers, no gusts of atrocious statement. We are a free country, and in that dialysis we derive our nutrients from unfair advantage, not unlike arm-wrestling in gale-force winds. The occult language denied to me by my ancestry will emerge in news photos of the battered and the dead.

Fringe benefits. Cola. I had to try on an appearance I wore in the recesses of a dream. In the dream there was a private anchor, and I sat on top of it and rode it out of the water up onto the boat. The vessel of our sleeping company lurches forward, flank or wing.

The people around you, brain-dead though they find their polls, learn you a thing or two. In practice, the arms of the republic should embrace those who differ in hair color, build, or perception. A sequined dress, barren angle in the new world, apotheosis of corona and self-stink.

Wink. The news carried us into the souped-up sand dunes. Partially, I grow nostalgic for the intimacy of a nape, but this timidity runs fallow under rifles and manpower. I did not side with the victors. I did not lose my change on the wrong bet, rusted machines of the hard-of-hearing government.




Tim Peterson’s chapbook Cumulus was recently published by Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs. Poetry and criticism have appeared or are forthcoming in Antennae, can we have our ball back?, Colorado Review, and Rain Taxi. Tim is on the POG board of directors, and won an honorable mention for the Robert Penn Warren Awards in 2001, a contest judged that year by John Ashbery