Jeffrey Skinner

Jeffrey Skinner Poems

The Best Poem Of Jeffrey Skinner

Fetch

Go, bring back the worthless stick.
"Of memory," I almost added.
But she wouldn't understand, naturally.
There is the word and the thing

adhering. So far so good.
Metaphor, drawer of drafting tools--
spill it on the study floor, animal says,
that we might at least see

how an expensive ruler tastes.
Yesterday I pissed and barked and ate
because that's what waking means.
Thus has God solved time

for me--here, here. What you call
memory is a long and sweet,
delicious crack of wood in my teeth
I bring back and bring back and bring back.

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