The Foothills Of The Heavens Poem by Robert Rorabeck

All of the pieces were taken apart
Over the better part of a weekend
So now I am in China listening to
Country music I cannot understand-
While otters I onced loved
Play in the streams I abandoned underneath
The aspens
Near my mother's cradle-
Where some horses have died
And the elk shed their antlers
Atop so many stepladders leading up to-
I don't know- the foothills of
The heavens-
Looking down into the parking lots,
Can't they pretend to see better than any of
Us the kids practicing into dusk,
The butterflies as they get naked
And metamorphose, enjoying
The summers that kill so many people-
The memories of our ancestors roaming
So many parking lots
Nevering realizing they are just the
Evaporations of the tears
Of some graveyards.