Those Clever Accoutrements They'D Show To Any Boy Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Please tell me she’s lying on her bed,
Because I’m done now: I’m off my bike,
And I’m thoroughly drenched,
My fingers are cold and would wish to warm inside
A thicket of blue bells which I’ll compare her to;
And I’m an awful man, not finished painting-
Didn’t learn anything at the university today:
Didn’t go to class, but rode around and drank in all
The open rooms, and as I tilted back it was just to
Get a look at the perfect young ankles of all the
Practicing housewives:
It was at first a revelation, a button-holed parade,
And I had to say there were a lot of heroes amidst them,
And the bravest of them bared teeth when they laughed
And seemed to freeze for me, and show me the
Long hot row, so I could almost picture them in the very
Neighborhood they were bound to transcend in to:
I could see them hanging glass balls on the Christmas tree
In the houses they made and kept their souls in;
And pies on the sills, and house cats along the eaves,
And crocodiles and roman candles and hangovers that wouldn’t
Go away;
But it got exhausting thinking of all of these, and even the
Flowers turned to wilt, and the shade got runny- but the girls
Didn’t leave: They were bound to show for me those clever
Accoutrements they’d show to any boy- that got them into
High school and college and free cigarettes;
So finally I had to look at the time myself and make up an excuse
I had no reason to procrastinate any more; and I hope my muse
Is waiting, waiting and that she has nothing on and her
Hair is undone and is as pale as an unmolested envelop set there
For me to lick and seal with my letters to put in and her
In that lonely lovely apartment so close to the amusement parks
And downtown racetracks that she could be one or the other herself;
And that is what I am waiting for, even though my words are
Not my own: that she should have blue bells in her hair and likewise
Underarms, that her eyes should lay like blue birds half molested
In their nests, and sleepily speak to me gathered above her
Soft and snowy breasts.