Poems About Billy Collins Seeking Honest Critique

I do not admit that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia . . . by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race . . . has come in and taken their place.” (Winston Churchill, 1937, speaking before the Palestine Royal Commission).
 
 
For those who still feel, the world is a tragedy
and it stings in places one wonders
were better left unvisited
 
but time offers crossed slots of opportunity
where historical pain needs recalibration
when iconic figures are revealed as merely human; ...

There is this sense of the irony here,
and of subtle humor --
clever twists on universal truths
not producing a so-called horselaugh or even a giggle
but more a smirk of acknowledgment
or maybe a snort or a nod
or just a twinkle in the eye
indicating that yes, we get it and yes, it is funny
especially if one likes his humor
dipping a baby toe in the mildly acidic waters of ironic drollery.

Which is, like it or not, where truth often resides.

Because we might as well accept the slapstick antics
involved in...

As we ran with fleeting chance
like insects, fly from summer's grass  
like dogs just let off a lead  
dirty hands, and dirty knees  

See no danger, pay no heed  
 lied when I said I cleaned my teeth  
tremble as I braved a "dare"  
with impish grin and tousled hair  
 
Did my mind just twist the facts  
reminisce through hazy cataracts  
Just  outlines, as we squint the past  
was my ten, just that far back  
 
Old photographic remnants, in hand-me downs  
refractions of that life in sepia...

( After Billy Collins )

Observing an ocean of rain—      
so many fishtails, hydroplaning            
amid a merriment of muddy streets

reflections quaver under light—
deadwood trash washed out
to the air by waning wind

—commuters, rippling
toward landing places

I press on despite the storm;
its downpour uterin warm
—the alchemy of each breath
a gift terraforming myself—

in the recourse of clouds I realize
every departure is an undergone act—
every step-toward an eternal record ...