The First Collins poem

This is the first poem submitted for project
in which you the reader turns in a Billy Collins poem.
The How to Write a Billy Collins poem instructions are in the post
entitled Happy Poems. So read the instructions and submit, submit, submit...
Remember this is not a contest, but the winner will receive a wonderful prize.


here is a poem Steven Colbert (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=69366862) submitted yesterday.

I wonder what a Billy Collins poem is, as I have never read one,
But I gather it has a rhythm that meanders
To the all-familiar la-da-de of the suburban
Hedge-row contained oinopoponton of the lawn-mower owning tribes
Who in times of crisis (or when the skies are the simple fact of grey)
Must recall, in a succession of very clear blurs
The menagerie of benders trailing back
To that first illicit thrill under the bleachers after dark
A satisfied slurp of cold Milwaukee's
Best, a cigarette,
The terror of finding all that lacking
And the wonder of what now would constitute as terrifying.
Here, in the leaden-laden 75th percent
We need the always present upturn of a question.
What, after all
All those six packs later (as if I'd ever buy but six!)
Was it worth, sinning, if those sins came origin less?
If Sin was but a name the namers fixed to blankness in a desperate bid for order.
And now, at the end, before things get askew
It's time to end the poem on an uplift, with a skeptical,
Even dour nod to show the Carnegies and Rockerfellers
How to balance the wealth and power of a neo-farious prince
With the age-old haunted alcoholic wisdom of the bard.


Also, for the three people who read this
I did not take any of the poems down
and plan to keep on posting