I first read it about twenty-five years ago, I think in Iowa City, or else in Omaha, Nebraska, where I lived for a time in the early 2000s, around the turn of the millennium. Since then I’ve always referred to those little potatoes that can be found in small mesh bags at grocery stores as ‘potatoes in their jackets’. Which is maybe how most people refer to them, when they think of them or mention them, I don’t know. I just like the way it sounds. And I like the poem too, it is special to me. When I said I didn’t want to bore you with it, I meant only that a long poem can sometimes be onerous to read, even when it is good.