To Promise To Smile Poem by Robert Rorabeck

The great waterfalls flow and take their clothes off
For men:
The cars stop and gawk, and the tourists grin:
And when I sleep and without motion I move,
You are there holding my hand above the feral boys:
You are there every time,
Fearless in the darkness while in the daylight there is fear:
You are the caress of an undiscovered species:
While the throats of the simulacrum enjoy their cheap liquors
One or two times,
I think in my cells I can always enjoy you, while the rainbows
Start and stop in mirages across the carports in the sky,
You are a mailbox that can never be touched,
Gleaming with her throat open and blushing like a naked
Song bird:
You are here, Alma, and you made it so far without moving
A muscle:
All you had to do was to promise to smile.