AUTHOR'S NOTE:

A little imagist wordplay: “toile” (French for “cloth” or, as in “toile à voile,” “sailcloth”) becomes étoile (“star”). The view is from the deck of a boat, past the sail, to the night sky. “Peach-black” is a shade of artist’s pigment that, I’m told, at one time contained ground peach pits. “Toile” is also a canvas for painting.

BIO:

David Yezzi’s poetry collections include Azores (2008) and The Hidden Motel (2003), and his criticism and poetry have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Best American Poetry.