Billy Collins night

Had an impromptu dinner with neighbors last Friday night. My oldest son and his wife were in for a few days, my husband was racing (trying to set another national record when he could have been home having so much fun sitting by the fish pond), and my youngest son went to the county fair with friends, soooooo, I had cooked enough for a log rollin' and was outside talking to my neighbors when Lynn said something about going inside to cook something to eat. I had all that food cooking and so I just said, "I'm bringing food over and we'll eat on the patio."

Amazing food. Great neighbors. Wonderfully nice evening. Few mosquitoes. I brought the food and a bottle of wine (a nice Penfolds cab). On the menu: marinated pork chops, roasted asparagus, roasted new potatoes with herbs, mixed green salad with herbs, celery, red pepper, chives, chopped green onions, and feta cheese, and garlic bread. We ate & talked & laughed & cried. Jerry just lost his dad a year ago--I lost mine in April. And then I told them about going to the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and that Billy was going to be there, so of course, I had to read some Billy.

Read Billy. By candlelight. Left the book open and now there's red wax spllied across these words:

whom
hole in the
toast to
and still
knocking
gather

The rest of the wax is in the margins.

The poem is Cheers.

I'm going to type it in here after I get something to eat. Been a busy day today and it's almost 2 and I haven't been to lunch!