Loretta? Poem by Robert Rorabeck

It is not proper to call her,
The woman you never knew but
Once walked besides and shared the air
And street, when the light fell upon the
Both of you and you glanced her way.
There, on the moment, you were together
With the world, when the spirits and her
Legs brought you so close to her, see
Her lips open as if they would call your name,
Or take off and fly, like something gentle
To land softly on your cheek and whisper.
When you were so close to her, the
Brief eternity of your life, and her skin so
Near that you can smell her bath she had
That morning, then and only then you
Are sure that there is a God, and maybe
He has finally taken notice of the world
And he is ready now to begin anew the
Tangible creations of beast and man, by
Bringing her nearer to you and having her
Tell you her name, to pollinate your ear,
Like a great conductor
Waltzing the crackling light down from the sun
To lance off her open bosom, to share with
Your eyes the ornaments of natural selection,
And then to embrace and spend the night with,
Curled together in the soft moonlight washing
This young city to the beat of the sea still
Sucks off the pill of swallowed conquistadors
From so long ago, where wolves live so far away from,
But then she has passed, she is gone from here,
Where clouds now cover up the sun, and the strange
Ugly people reemerge along with the honking and
The flashing lights, and the world has lost its color,
And the word red no longer exists, and the empty
Crowded street has returned once
Again to it’s natural chaos where the sun is so distant,
As if in winter on the wrong side of the earth,
but all you can do now
Is to live desperately in the moment passed, the moment
When she came so near to you and you were so
Sure of divinity, and so you live with her still, destroyed
By the permanence of the fleeting vision, still sure that
You speak her name in kisses upon her neck when
She comes to you in dreams, but waking, you are
Torn apart by the lonely paradox of having her in
Your heart, and not knowing where she is.