I pick up thumb-tacks in the street
and put them in my pocket. Some I use
to stick up times on the corkboard, some I put
back in the desk. Once a tack stuck
straight through the ball of my foot as I ran straight
on it, the ball of the foot came down, the heel
lifted off pushing the ball of the foot down
full on the tack. Running off I stepped off
pulling off blind—leg, hip, spine,
neck and tongue like a crack of lightning. If you
want
to keep time straight, you pick up tacks
and put them in your pocket.
—from “Thumbtacks, Glass, Pennies”
