That I'Ve Had To Say Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Mirrors in recreational vehicles deep in the middle
Of the day:
Alligators touching themselves: and I am starving,
Starving:
The fish is on the hook, the rivers are giving all of
Their money into the sea:
And all I’ve wished is what I’ve had to say to
Be beautiful:
Beautiful:
But it is as forgotten as a wagon by hungry children;
As my dog in Arizona,
As the red fields turn to custard as the sun looks
Away:
As the bodies paint themselves across the recreations
Of the bomb shelters,
And the families separate- as the knights leave their
Table,
As the sororities separate into the immaculate mirages
Of housewives:
And I only know three or five words; but I’ve used
Them with the best intent:
It is my recipe- paper snowflakes and paper airplanes
Over the scars of perpetually adolescent bicycles:
It is all that I’ve had to say.