To Return To Us Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Sad ribbon left on the vanity,
Who place it taken by the preferred barrette:
Come and stay with me,
Even though I too prefer the barrette more:
Walk in my hand as I go to
See the alligators in my loneliness,
Far beneath the love of airplanes
Who are leaping away forevermore: when will
They ever let off leaping
Into the banquet of clouds: girls dressed up
For their pilots: they prefer barrettes,
But they have forgotten the smells of jasmine,
Or the slender teeth of foxes smiling
As they leap for the grapes of their windows,
Which leaves me right here with you:
A pinwheel in my other hand for example,
Turning, bemused- a little science experiment of
How my heart leaps like a hummingbird,
Turning summersaults and kissing all of my
Fingerprints all at once-
And I will take you through the natural disorder
Outside of your abandoned bedroom,
And tell you things I what I always meant to
Be for her, even if she never means to return to us.