Chandeliers And Candelabrums Poem by Robert Rorabeck

All of a sudden to start and finish—I hear airplanes
As terrapin and hare,
Tortoise and jack rabbit race—
The same as the fables they carried from deep,
Deep Africa—
Africa of golden eyes and nipples—or serpent tongue,
Forked, cannibalistic, evangelical—of so long ago—
Calling up to her parapets again—
Languishing, cracking knuckles—almost older
Than Christ but sophomoric Romeo:
Give me the reciprocations of pinwheels, of windmills
And Ferris wheels—and valleys and valleys that
Believe in my madness—and girls filled right there,
Spilling with wildflowers and aspen—
Paper airplanes and longer jets flying around their
Hair like barrettes—and other places that call and
Call on us—
As all around us they sing, light prosperous in the
Chandeliers and candelabrums even though we are
No longer here.