What It Is Poem by Robert Rorabeck

And my heart like a lavish dinner laid bare alongside the mollusks
In the hyperventilating shore;
And it was as if, sitting down, we both shared a heart
And ate popcorn while looking at the most pitiful of animals in the
Zoo,
Never minding what the clouds were doing; we were along with
The housewives and their steady stock:
We were underneath the regular gazebo of airplanes, and there
Wasn’t any use to looking up:
You wouldn’t allow me to ride the merry go round with you,
Alma,
Because it must have reminded you of the hapless freedom which
You had when you was single,
But we both got to look at the panther together, which you said
Was your most favorite of those animals;
And we kissed and held each other in so many kinds of ways
Like animals being tamed ourselves,
While the whitish housewives were looking on, but I swore I
Never saw them
Because the only thing that I truly remember is kissing your mouth
In that little aquatic hut which held the albino crocodile.
It was the only creature in the world who saw us doing this,
And I am sure he still remembers: perhaps it is all he thinks about
These months and some months later while I am in my own
House, and under its old roof as it is raining,
And raining: thinking and thinking of what it is that you must
Be thinking.