Like Sleeping Jewelry Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Rhinoceros coming into his own,
Rising like the lilacs in the carport—
Does he have a favorite color,
As the little boy climbs the orange tree
In the backyard to see the sunrise:
He can see: cats sleeping,
And little girls stolen like young birds
From the nest: metamorphosing,
Strangling like peacocks as they learn of
Marriage—
They have gone over the canals—leaping over
Many of them, where stolen bicycles rest
Like sleeping jewelry—
Where they are now: they are across the
Stories of many deserts—
And the little boy peers and peers:
He wants to go to the fair with them—he
Can barely see them,
But from this distance, they seem to be happy:
So he goes back indoors just as
The school bus comes,
Because he prefers to sleep forever—
And so he will.