From Their Earliest Romance Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Over the little green room it
Rains,
And the ladies wait out their labors- the fish
Are done swimming outside-
The men are done with their banter,
And the rooster is underneath the gutter
With the dog-
He is silent in all of his color;
And after the rains, smoke over the earth,
And the crops who make their heated gains
In the night time;
The insects change through them- and if you
Are lucky, you will see the little girl
Kissing the lips of the corn snake in the
Dirty gutter
Before classes and the light arising over the world,
But not for the last time,
Making measured exchanges- and then you
Will have to sit behind her
And wonder
What he tasted like to her, and what secrets
They shared
So fertile was the light newly born
From their earliest romance.