Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.
Sky Nails
Sky Nails - Jamie McKendrick
Sky Nails
That first day, to break me in,
my hardened comrades
sent me scampering like a marmoset
from the topmost parapet
sent me scampering like a marmoset
from the topmost parapet
to the foreman’s hut
for a bag of sky nails.
The foreman wondered which precise
shade of blue I had in mind.
for a bag of sky nails.
The foreman wondered which precise
shade of blue I had in mind.
It’s still sky nails I need today
with their faint threads
and unbreakable heads
with their faint threads
and unbreakable heads
that will nail anything
to nothing
and make it stay.
to nothing
and make it stay.
first published in The Kiosk on the Brink (OUP, 1993), © Jamie McKendrick 1993, from Sky Nails, Poems 1979-1997 (Faber, 2000), used by permission of the author