For Another Year Poem by Robert Rorabeck

And a castle on a sandstone cliff
Surrounded by dragons who are ejaculating flames
On some desk in the middle of high school
Where the poor prince mopes—
Motes of crystal stars and plastic tears:
I know what he is feeling, falling in love with the milky way
Of her skin—
As she goes and kisses in her car—paper snowflakes fall
On the hoods of toads:
It lasts all sophomore year, jelly-fish and sponges
That weep and sting, but never think of all of this—
Carried by the waves as if by their roller-rinks of
Mothers—
Sea urchins beneath them as red as the Siamese jewelry
Decorating her bosom—broaches pressed in her
Brazier—She comes up to another slide
And the sunlight collects around her like hungry grasshoppers
Before she goes down for another year.