Invention

D E C E M B E R 1 9 9 8

by Billy Collins

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Also by Billy Collins:
Man Listening to Disc (1999)

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Tonight the moon is a cracker,
with a bite out of it
floating in the night,

and in a week or so
according to the calendar
it will probably look

like a silver football,
and nine, maybe ten days ago
it reminded me of a thin bright claw.

But eventually --
by the end of the month,
I reckon --

it will waste away
to nothing,
nothing but stars in the sky,

and I will have a few nights
to myself,
a little time to rest my jittery pen.

Billy Collins is the author of Questions About Angels (1991), The Art of Drowning (1995), and Picnic, Lightning (1998).