Pride Poem by Robert Rorabeck

You live in the blue
Cavern that your
Mother seeds
Looking up at her
Like awakening in an
Azure tent,
She washes your hair-
Rippling like the sea
And the sun proceeds
Its warmth through you
Like the outline
Of a God
Beginning to create
Fire from wind:
You are undressing;
Alone,
This is all you are
Knowing in the morning
You will summit the
Earth
And then you will be
Amongst the tallest of men,
Flesh unfurled:
Far down in
The valley
Your mother smiles,
Unknowing
In the living room
All the things you will
Do,
Foreshadowed by the
Daytime talk shows
Which speak just for her
And even though
Even now your girlfriend
Is making love
To another man
Far down below
Where there is no
Color
On the flat dog-eyed sea
Only hypocrisies of children;
She can think
None the less of you,
As you hold your breath,
Step up
And fit your hand
Around
The ankle of
The statuesque maiden
Engaged to the horizon’s cerulean tarp
With your head in the clouds:
There is almost a
Tear in her eye,
Your mother is so proud of you,
So proud.