A Poem for a Thursday #271

It has been ages since I have featured a poem by Billy Collins. That is a pity because I like almost everything he has written. I saw this quote about Collins’ poetry and I agree: “Rarely has anyone written poems that appear so transparent on the surface but become so ambiguous, thought-provoking, or simply wise once the reader has peered into the depths.”

If there is only enough time in the final 
minutes of the twentieth century for one last dance
I would like to be dancing it slowly with you,

say, in the ballroom of a seaside hotel.
My palm would press into the small of your back
as the past hundred years collapsed into a pile
of mirrors or buttons or frivolous shoes,

just as the floor of the nineteenth century gave way
and disappeared in a red cloud of brick dust.
There will be no time to order another drink
or worry about what was never said,

not with the orchestra sliding into the sea
and all our attention devoted to humming 
whatever it was they were playing.

Dancing Toward Bethlehem
Billy Collins