Into An Ivory Tower Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Building upwards its massive strata of bonfires
And lucky children,
My wife goes to a Buddhist temple and makes three
Wishes with her best friend:
I will see her for five days over Spring Breakâ€"
For now the boughs bend,
And the airplanes fly like curve ballsâ€"into several
Months after Christmas. Oh, how the common
Holidays have maimed me,
As I wait for her out in the tiny orchards of my yard,
Buzzing like fliesâ€"
And the child I cannot remember playing across
The street in the blue pornographies underneath the
Pinesâ€"it takes a while to remember I am not
Here,
And as I try to decipher, she wonders offâ€"
Across the canal, a common border for our worldsâ€"
Where the cats talk, and she can win prizes for meâ€"
Though it will take a long time to find her way
Back into an ivory tower we both try to amend.