The Tears Of A Vanishing Valentine Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Trying halfway in the shadows,
I promise everyone a passing grade—polishing off the
Glass, feeling her naked shadow in the glade
Down the soft rolling hill, like a fairytale sliding off the
University—
Struggling up to her nuptials like a hungry whippersnapper—
Licking the grease off her fingers—
Wanting to make love to her in a bed in the most circumspect
Hotel in Saint Augustine—and wake up in the middle of
That blue dream, to go down to the water and bend
My lips to a mermaid who I've paid to awaken there—
Pearls anemones around her belly—
Lounging in a caesura of one particular wave—baby blue
And sea blue—cerulean blue—and sky blue—
And the blue of the tears of a vanishing valentine.