Even the Beast of the Nile Needs Some Fun Every Once in a While

Hippos on Holiday by Billy Collins from Ballistics (Random House)
is not really the title of a movie
but if it was I would be sure to see it.
I love their short legs and big heads,
the whole hippo look.
Hundreds of them would frolic
in the mud of a wide, slow-moving river,
and I would eat my popcorn


in the dark of a neighborhood theater.
When they opened their enormous mouths
lined with big stubby teeth
I would drink my enormous Coke.

I would be both in my seat
and in the water playing with the hippos,
which is the way it is
with a truly great movie.
Only a mean-spirited reviewer
would ask on holiday from what?


That hippo isn't the only one who could use a holiday . . .I'm off to New York for a long weekend with a couple friends where we'll do a little of this . . .

And a little of this . . .

And hopefully return home looking like this . . .