Palindromes And Paramours Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Palindromes and paramours walk back
And forth in the night,
Tell each other secrets, kiss:
Floods of bicycles suddenly speed by like
Schools of wheeled fish:
They are having a race, slick like
A dream, ready as a coffin:
Two girls say they should no longer make
Love, even though they are ready.
Underneath the palms they fail,
And that is where they are still.... Making love.
Though, my children are behind a
Red aquarium, sleeping on the couch-
I haven’t touched them since their mother
Turned into an eel and swam wisely in our
Bedroom with another man:
Now their fingerprints glow forensically on
The inside of my skull.
There is a serial killer in California who is
Seven foot tall,
And today I am drunk and out of work,
And sleeping under an overpass where the cars
Proceed like vaporous waves,
Commuters from high school laugh toothily
In the air-condition and fart self-consciously:
Outside the park, there are tools in the work shed,
And games to play till dark,
And the pet rabbit sleeps in the owl’s lap,
Who is well-sated and cheerful, and all
Around us they are singing of peace, all the
Women are beautiful, all the children blonde-
There is no reason to be fearful,
And its time to move on.