vuurklip Nuut! November 2024    Afscheid - Adriaan Morrien    Sononder    Kringloop    Winterson    Verlossing    Herinneringe    Rivier    Annie M.G. Schmidt    Hannie Michaelis    Billy Collins

LIFE EXPECTANCY by Billy Collins On the morning of a birthday that ended in a zero, I was looking out at the garden when it occurred to me that the robin on her worm-hunt in the dewy grass had a good chance of outliving me, as did the worm itself for that matter if he managed to keep his worm-head down. It was not always like this. For decades, I could assume that I would be around longer than the squirrel dashing up a tree or the nightly raccoons in the garbage, longer than the barred owl on a branch, the ibis, the chicken, and the horse, longer than four deer in a clearing and every creature in the zoo except the elephant and the tortoise, whose cages I would hurry past. It was just then in my calculations that the cat padded noiselessly into the room, and it seemed reasonable, given her bright eyes and glossy coat, to picture her at my funeral, dressed all in black, as usual, which would nicely set off her red collar, some of the mourners might pause in their grieving to notice, as she found a place next to a labradoodle in a section of the church reserved for their kind. Billy Collins “Life Expectancy” from Whale Day.