Close Your Eyes Poem by Robert Rorabeck

I finish off my last beer while Romero is outside
Walking around in the last of crepuscule;
I remember that there is a swing set in the black apartments
Down the street from the produce market,
And then I get out of the truck where I sleep and toss the
Beer bottle into the tall grass;
I come back inside, the textures glossed with rain
And try not to brush my burning face: Somewhere there is a
Beautiful woman for me- Somewhere like a Disney Movie,
There is a beautiful woman- There is, isn’t there:
And the traffic comes and the traffic goes,
Vertical indentured traffic, never touching:
It is so impossible now- and I sling the last of my words like
Tossing colors onto a weary palate- like finger painting
In kindergarten, which is still maddening from the
Girls I love;
And pretty soon I will put my head to the truck’s bed
And go on a fieldtrip somewhere vast,
While my lips drool and my snake bleeds:
I want to go all the way out into the sea and meet you on
Some very grand atolls and kiss your lips,
And troll the depths of your shallows and hang my head between
You clefts,
And sing like a prisoner running free until morning’s red lanterns
Enthrall me and with its hateful dogs brings me back around
To capitulate with a reality that cannot be refuted until
You close your eyes.