Water, Water: Poems by Billy Collins

Author:Billy Collins [Collins, Billy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Poetry, American, General, Subjects & Themes, Animals & Nature, Family
ISBN: 9780593731031
Google: 7kn2EAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2024-11-18T23:00:00+00:00

Days of Teenage Glory

When I was busy committing the crime of high school,

the songs on the radio

took about two minutes to play,

and smoking a cigarette took about five,

so that things happened fairly quickly

as we passed the time and it passed us

without a sound except for the singing.

Singing by the Orioles, the Dubs, and the Clovers,

plus Lee Andrews and the Hearts,

who could do no wrong, according to me.

One night in the spring,

I even saw the Jesters battling the Paragons

on the stage of the Brooklyn Paramount,

then wandered the borough in a drizzle.

These days, if I’m not at my desk

or asleep in the back room,

I’m sitting in the garage

with a cup of coffee watching the rain

and waiting for that startling chord

that concludes “He’s Gone” by the Chantels,

the five notes the rungs in a ladder

pointed into a vacant teenage sky.

They were students together in the Bronx

at St. Anthony of Padua’s school,

but they named themselves

after a rival neighborhood school,

St. Frances de Chantal,

having wisely rejected the Paduas,

as I imagine them doing one afternoon.

Where are the Chantels now?

playing in the snows of yesteryear?

bathing in the waters of childhood?

Are they hanging in the domestic air

like a smoke ring over a kitchen table?

Or like one sailing from a girl’s mouth

in a car somewhere

only to vanish in a boy’s face

reflected pink in the rearview mirror?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.