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This issue of JACKET is a co-production with New American Writing magazine
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Spencer Selby

bargain

I just gave my friend
a bargain

took his wristwatch
in return for favors

disguised as letters
on the big roof slippery
and tarnished

I just told him
what I thought his lingo
had become

Sidereal kitchen
in the selfsame memoir
in a magazine backward
as the day is long

Primate brakes to wax
the furniture he is selling
24 by 7

Blast of starlight
taken at time of purchase

Temple change a corpse
so pretty he is sure
he’s got his wits about him
all the way down

Play by ear
in pedigree flotsam

pounding fist on a table
swallowing full of strength
what we worked so hard
avoiding

Tastes like cardboard
with the lettering removed

Stale donut I imagine
both of us eating
in the afterglow of
payments to the contrary

Sticks in the mouth
at all points
radio telescope blue

New American Writing # 19 and Jacket 13 Contents page
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This issue of Jacket is a co-production with New American Writing magazine
published in the northern spring of each year by Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover
369 Molino Avenue, Mill Valley CA 94941, USA
All back issues of New American Writing including No. 4 (New Australian Poetry) can be downloaded in their entirety and at half price from InfoPost at http://www.infopost.com/

This material is copyright © Spencer Selby
and Jacket magazine and New American Writing magazine 2001
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