A Gathering of Poetry: March 2023

It's the third Thursday of the month so I'd like to welcome you to A Gathering of Poetry. I had some trouble finding a poem this month, but as soon as I came upon this one, I knew this was what I wanted to share. It made me laugh and conjured up some lovely imagery at the same time.

Cheerios

by Billy Collins

One bright morning in a restaurant in Chicago

as I waited for my eggs and toast,

I opened the Tribune only to discover

that I was the same age as Cheerios.

Indeed, I was a few months older than Cheerios

for today, the newspaper announced,

was the seventieth birthday of Cheerios

whereas mine had occurred earlier in the year.

Already I could hear them whispering

behind my stooped and threadbare back,

Why that dude’s older than Cheerios

the way they used to say

Why that’s as old as the hills,

only the hills are much older than Cheerios

or any American breakfast cereal,

and more noble and enduring are the hills,

I surmised as a bar of sunlight illuminated my orange juice.

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Collins, Billy, "Cheerios", Poetry Magazine, September 2012. 

You can read more about the poet here. 

Just fyi, Cheerios debuted as Cheeri-Oats in 1941 (the year Billy Collins was born), making them both 82 years old. 

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Thanks for reading and joining us for our monthly Gathering of Poetry. Be sure to visit Kym and Kat so you can gather more poetry and you can add your link below if you would like to share one of your favorite poems. The more the merrier!

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