Even As It Flies Poem by Robert Rorabeck

My body sweats inside of new junctures:
All of your life swimming in the banishing ambers of
The rivers that no longer move:
Alma, I have had dreams of Guerrero where you lived, where
You come from,
Where no Romans ever conquered, and I have had fits and fought
Vampires for you
Alma, even while you were with your husband and your sisters
And your children
At the movies, and I was at my teachers house, and the palm trees
Rose like little boys who had
Survived plane crashes; and all of it was so sweet, like
Christmas trees who stay up all year:
And I hope I still know you come Christmas time,
Alma, because I want you to work my cash register, so I can still
See down the slender avenues of your luscious
Tributaries,
Calling you up and calling you down, even though we are so far beneath
The mountains
Alma, even though I am making no money with your eulogies:
I can hardly walk, Alma; and my jaw is wired
Shut- I have been through so many plane crashes and accidents,
And maybe you thought that I was beautiful once before,
Just as you thought that your husband was beautiful once before,
But cant you hear me calling to you now,
Alma- like the castaway wish down at the bottom of the evil well:
Alma,
Alma, I will live forever because of my words of love for you:
Don’t you wish to live forever, because I can happily step aside
And offer up my spot for you on my airplane
That is always burning even as it flies.