The Soft Bicycles And Mice Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Distended bellies under skies or highways
While the fires are roaring, and the Columbian women are
Selling in the flea market with the tattoos
On their shoulder blades like brown wings: where will it
Take them then,
When the fire comes, swiftly and sending all of the animals
Away from their works,
Forcing what moonlight there is to admit to its thievery,
And me to go out again and work for my father-
All the time listening for the waves,
The promises of new loves in them, repeatedly- the soft
Bicycles and mice going along the shore,
Saving themselves for the morning- as the fire burns around
Her neck,
And airplanes wear necklaces in the sky.