Bodies And Parts Poem by Robert Rorabeck

I only slept two hours last night,
And in that time dreams of you filled me up—
Your legs which scissor in a blur of liquid sun,
Your eyes that take off from your incredulous face
To land on my ruddy shoulders
To sing like opera stars who bat their
Lashes at me, corpulent premodonas I feed
Bread crumbs to until they are tamed and become
My faithful satellites, circling one after the other,
Petit versions of Phobos and Demos—

I have you in my head, and little ten year
Old bits of you are stuck between my ivories. I leave you there,
So once in awhile a vintage sliver becomes dislodged
And I can taste that part of you before it goes down,
The bouquet of a rose petal shed from your eye
As you bent down to tie your shoe, and I saw your
Cleavage and pocketed what I could, so when
You looked up I smiled sheepishly before pointing
Out something random—

Did you hear I’m likely getting published? Over
In England I may become quite famous, but I worry
You’ve come to some serious trouble without me
There to cloth you. You can’t rely on anyone else
But me. I will send you a bouquet of daises to cheer you
Up and a first edition, and if I see you we’ll shake hands.
If you allow me to grin like a sheep, then I will allow
You to grin like a wolf, and in our mouths’ parting
Gestures, the precursor to the devour, we shall begin….

Yet maybe it’s that you've fallen in love
With a dashing young professor of antiquity and
Even now he’s driving you through the drive-thru
For a burger and coke with love in his eyes and his pen
In all those scholarly journals with titles that circulate
The world several times before running out of gas,
And acidic essays which peel the skin right off the eyes.

If that’s the case, I see you’ve found me out for the hack
I am, Plato plus one chromosome, and the only thing to do
Is to get in line at the hardware store and try to shoplift
A big axe to chop down a tree in your path, to hold you
Up for a little while, so I can return your flowers from my
Throat, to give back that not so old kiss you once gave my
Neck.