a poem from billy collins

I asked them to take a poem and hold it up to the light
Like a color slide
Or press an ear against its hive
I say, drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out
Or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch
I want them to water ski across the surface of a poem,
Waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.


-Billy Collins