Robert Rorabeck Poems

Washing away the salt from your lips,
Bending over the drinking fountain in the hallway
In the middle of the day,
Lost in a daydream—you don't wish to be taken
...

Our time at the zoo—if you cannot remember—heavenly light before
The second time we made love—
The ostrich took a special interest in you—
We watched the kaki attendants pretending to know falconry—
...

Nubile poem on the cleft of an orb—
Silence slips over the curves of a river-
And the strange jewelry that decorates the housewives
Without a sound—
...

Kings falling down a hill into a playground,
Beside the traffics,
Or in California made up with
The make believe unicorns—
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Sun set itself through the aluminum sea—
Paper and toy angels dancing
Through a midsummer's shopping mall
While my wife slept—
...

I write this every time and visitors they come
And laying fawn in the sun;
And the traffic is behind my head, but where are
The conquistadors and the things that they must have done:
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Chinese people waking up around
Me and drying their eyes:
Walking upon tiptoes around me—It
Is as if this is the planet Mercury
...

Words huffed from a quiet man’s body,
Like cloudbanks in their syllables, come easier, like
Love,
With liquor, but now I fear I should not drink unless
...

Airplanes make ribbons—yes, they do for
Lonely girls,
And I almost forgot that I left you here:
I do not suppose you remember me—
...

Wounded on a mountain waiting for
Inebriation—a decade of drinking at the feet of
The gods,
The rain running down like lost boys to
...