Poem of the Week, by Billy Collins

Memento Mori

- Billy Collins

There is no need for me to keep a skull on my desk,

to stand with one foot up on the ruins of Rome,

or wear a locket with the sliver of a saint’s bone.

It is enough to realize that every common object

in this sunny little room will outlive me–

the carpet, radio, bookstand and rocker.

Not one of these things will attend my burial,

not even this dented goosenecked lamp

with its steady benediction of light,

though I could put worse things in my mind

than the image of it waddling across the cemetery

like an old servant, dragging the tail of its cord,

the small circle of mourners parting to make room.

 

For more information on Billy Collins, please click here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/b...