October 8: "The Flight of the Statues," Routine, Hardcover

Most days are pretty routine.  I did the same thing this Tuesday that I did last Tuesday.  Tomorrow, I will follow my Wednesday rituals:  working, teaching, writing, and working some more.  Nothing truly surprising will happen.

Billy Collins is taken by surprise . . .

The Flight of the Statues

by: Billy Collins

The ancient Greeks…. used to chain
their statues to prevent them from fleeing.
--Michael Kimmelman

It might have been the darkening sky
that sent them running in all directions
that afternoon as the air turned a pale yellow,

but were they not used to standing out
in the squares of our city
in every kind of imaginable weather?

Maybe they were frightened by a headline
on a newspaper that was blowing by
or was it the children in their martial arts uniforms?

Did they finally learn about the humans
they stood for as they pointed a sword at a cloud?
Did they know something we did not?

Whatever the cause, no one will forget
the sight of all the white marble figures
leaping from their pedestals and rushing away.

In the parks, the guitarists fell silent.
The vendor froze under his umbrella.
A dog tried to híde in his owner's shadow.

Even the chess players under the trees
looked up from their boards
long enough to see the bronze generals

dismount and run off, leaving their horses
to peer down at the circling pigeons
who were stealing a few more crumbs from the poor.

Okay, I didn't see any marble statues running down the street today.  However, when I got home this evening, there was a box waiting for me.  Inside the box:  hardcover copies of my new book.  This may not seem like such a big deal to you, faithful disciple, but it is huge to me, equivalent to Lincoln stepping down from the Lincoln Memorial and skipping off to Dairy Queen.  Or the faces on Mount Rushmore breaking into a barbershop quartet version of "Stand by Me."

Six months ago, my Bigfoot book was still just a file on a flash drive.  The poems were disorganized and in need of revision.  Tonight, the hairy guy is out in the world.  I'm not sure if people are going to like or buy my book, and, frankly, at this moment, I don't really care.

Cuz Saint Marty has a hardcover copy of his book in his hot little hands.