Billy Collins- Poetry for the end of summer

Here's a poem from Billy Collins- who doesn't love Billy Collins?- found in this month's Poet's and Writers. He has another poem about a school teacher that I can't find, but when I do I will reprint it here. This one is just a classic play on language and adages, those quirky phrases that hold an ounce of truth despite sometimes being obscure. Enjoy...four more days of summer!

ADAGE, by Billy Collins

When it's late at night and branches
are banging against the windows,
you might think that love is just a matter

of leaping out of the frying pan of yourself
into the fire of someone else,
but it's a little more complicates than that.

It's more like trading the two birds
who might be hiding in that bush
for the one you are not holding in your hand.

A wise man once said that love
was like forcing a horse to drink
but then everyone stopped thinking of him as wise.

Let us be clear about something.
Love is not as simple as getting up
on the wrong side of the bed wearing the emperor's clothes.

No, it's more like the way the pen
feels after it has defeated the sword.
It's a little like the penny saved or the nine dropped
stitches.

You look at me through the halo of the last candle
and tell me love is an ill wind
that has no turning, a road that blows no good,

but I am here to remind you,
as our shadows tremble on the walls,
that love is the early bird who is better late then never.

~from Ballistics, by Billy Collins. Copyright © 2008 by Billy Collins.

The last stanza is a killer, no doubt, with the shadows trembling on the walls. Good stuff. Now if I can find the other one...