The Lamentations Of That Garden Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Parched symbols of a paper sea
In a rebellion of totems who wait for you
In the darkness long after you have
Gotten into your car and driven away
Underneath the latchkeys of the overpasses
And to Hollywood- They are making pictures of
You whose brown stems are a forest- they are making
You feel unreal until your children come
Back home again from the water spirits of the mountains,
Bringing you a vial of the tears of their father
They discovered where you were sure
He was abandoned- doing his job for a lady who
Is always changing him,
Doing the work you set her to, as the butterflies
Follow the school busses down from the lamentations
Of that garden.