Witch Defeats A Paladin Poem by Robert Rorabeck

my god
I invade the privacy of witches
check the drawers to see how many r@bbers you’ve
had inside you
while I was in Colorado
14,000 feet up, wanting to f—
rings of sunlight which ascend
in golden rain
Oh, if you could have seen
mountains
upon the rolling shores of my reddening plain
you would have not been so jealous, you would have slept
like a cat in my lap
and we’d had rolled forth to
Alaska
Instead you used sewing needles to pierce
my throat
and cut me from
your crippling ship
You said you didn’t f— him, not yet,
and not that you didn’t want to,
but there was only one condom in
That suspicious drawer—
meticulously placed for show,
The box behind it was empty
I dreamed I loved you,
but then he was there
with you in the dark
and under your skirt
Now I am left with the need to explore
the laborious slopes of another’s body
to swim like angels
into the flesh
She is a vagrant and a truant
but at least she doesn’t pretend to
love me
and doesn’t place c@ndoms
there
as if she were arranging
dinnerware