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March 13, 2025

Two Poems

Poem converted to an image to maintain layout structure. Poem text reads as follows: Reader Response Theory Every time I read his poetry, I feel like the earth-smeared skull of Yorick looking back at Hamlet as he holds me in one hand, but not in a good way. Storks A single stork can carry a newborn into the world but four are required to take out the dead, lifting us one by one into the air by our shirt cuffs and socks.

Billy Collins’s most recent book of poems is Whale Day (Random House, 2020).

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Magazine, April 2025, Poetry

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