Oh Dear, My Dear Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Coal fields are black without pinpricks or lips,
And the sooty men sit there too tired for tricks;
And, above them, the sky is so black, so eeried by night,
And the black little children fly black, eerie kites,
And sometimes I sit there in the coal dunes all cold,
And pretend there to know you and your fingers I hold,
But here are not your lips, so insignificant in ire,
For one single match would catch the whole place afire,
And what the angels would see as they ate lunch in space,
Is the insignificance of a distant star insouciantly lit,
A speck on a field like an imperfection unfit,
Or a hole in a yard which is otherwise uncommonly kept;
In truth, as you sit there cleaning your plate,
Your porcelain, your china, and all your estate,
I could climb up to your summit without bottled oxygen,
But just as swiftly your disinterest would knock me down again;
So I stay here gazing intent as a blind man,
The remnants of a cicada hooked to a banyan;
Where the sea of oil flicks the waves of an onyx harem,
And the sky above is a great, empty cauldron; Oh, you,
Whom to I say this song, so long since I’ve seen you;
I’m sure you are there bathing, but with even that, what do I know?
I have nothing to behold, for there is a reason all of this energy
Is held in blackness in the apex of a vacuum,
Like the wick of a candle kept by a faithful virgin, for to come
To you in this dark room, to pull the light on, to bend and kiss
You, without reception, would be the plot, the headstone,
And every inch of the coffin,
So I sit here in the unmatriculating headroom, while their
Waves draw inky caesuras, and you sit on your bed with your
Head turned, and let his fingers unhook your brazier,
So in the end I can say I’ve never known you, or swam in your country,
And you can kiss him with more innocent luxury,
Though when the work is done and they day is lulling,
When the shadows of creep and crawling, come a little more near,
I can still turn my head to you in the innocent darkness,
In the way I think you are waiting, and call
You dear,
My dear.