"I've Been Working on the Railroad"
Click here to listen to Jeffrey Skinner read this poem.
I've always had trouble with the boss, even when I was self-employed.
Why do I have to sit there for eight hours when I can finish the day's
work in fifty-seven minutes? And there was a flaw on the face
of the office clock, a flyspeck or mole between five and six
where the eye went naturally, as if to the corner of an otherwise
impeccable woman's lips. I kissed that flaw in my mind, over and over,
because I had nothing else to do. The idea of work is fine, but
must we put every idea into practice? The trees, which I sometimes
catch waving to me, seem content in every weather, as if they
Some of Jeffrey Skinner's new poems appear in American Poetry Review and Statement. His play, Down Range, will be produced in New York this fall.
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