American Life in Poetry

American Life in Poetry: Column 240

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE



The Paleontologist’s Blind Date

You have such lovely bones, he says,

holding my face in his hands,

 

and although I can almost feel

the stone and the sand

 

sifting away, his fingers

like the softest of brushes,

 

I realize after this touch

he would know me

 

years from now, even

in the dark, even

 

without my skin. 

Thank you, I smile—

 

then I close the door

and never call him again.

Philip Memmer

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Philip Memmer, whose most recent book of poetry is Lucifer: A Hagiography, Lost Horse Press, 2009. “The Paleontologist’s Blind Date,” from Threat of Pleasure by Phil Memmer, ©2008 Word Press, Cincinnati, Ohio.