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The Long Day.

Publisher	Modern Poetry Association
Publication	Poetry
Subject	Literature/writing
Format	Magazine/Journal
ISSN	0032-2032
Issues per Year	12
Volume	185
Issue	2
Published	2004-11-01

Role	Type	Name
Author	n/a	Billy Collins

THE LONG DAY

   In the morning I ate a banana
   like a young ape
   and worked on a poem called "Nocturne."

   In the afternoon I opened the mail
   with a short kitchen knife,
   and when dusk began to fall

   I took off my clothes,
   put on "Sweethearts of the Rodeo"
   and soaked in a claw-footed bathtub.

   I closed my eyes and thought
   about the alphabet,
   the letters leaving the halls of kindergarten

   to become literature.
   If the British call z zed,
   I wondered, why not call b bed and d dead.

   And why is z, which looks like
   the fastest letter, at the...

[This journal article is 162 words long]