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motelrodeo

November 23, 2006

item3

giving thanks

Outside, the scene was right for the season,  

heavy gray clouds and just enough wind  

to blow down the last of the yellow leaves.  

 

But the house was different that day,  

so distant from the other houses,  

like a planet inhabited by only a dozen people  

 

with the same last name and the same nose  

rotating slowly on its invisible axis.  

Too bad you couldn't be there  

 

but you were flying through space on your own asteroid  

with your arm around an uncle.  

You would have unwrapped your scarf  

 

and thrown your coat on top of the pile  

then lifted a glass of wine  

as a tiny man ran across a screen with a ball.  

 

You would have heard me  

saying grace with my elbows on the tablecloth  

as one of the twins threw a dinner roll  

across the room at the other.  

 

The Gathering  

Billy Collins