You Are There Poem by Robert Rorabeck

I have been to Spain, which is the best compliment
Of a drunken man:
I have been to Spain and the whole time I kept
My eyes closed,
While I got tattoos and ate oranges;
And the 2-cycle motorcycles purred, luxuriant and
Bilious parade over the olive esplanade:
And I have been to Spain, or I have caught yourself
Looking in your eyes:
That thing that has eaten, eaten what has come up from
The red,
Red petticoats of ancestral highway men;
And you didn’t care that I burned cypress with my
Uninhibited gasolines;
Or that I caught the shadows of séance or of
Light weight devils:
That I might careen down into you in a part that is just
As good as the whole,
With my eyes clinched shut, like a yard sale overrun
By burning ants,
Having a debate about what is real and what can be
Gotten away with:
I was in both Spain and France for Christmas- and
I love you,
But haven’t yet opened by eyes to see if, finally,
You are there.