Zoetrope To Your Shadow Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Like the prettiest rooms of the closets,
Everybody who loves Disney World keeps saying your
Name—
And the shore in its endless lovers perpetuates
Our illusions:
There you are, a mermaid of a water coloring
I lost somewhere amidst the backyards of
High school
As you became more and more aware of the
Special places of your desire—like beautiful children
In the daydream of a church's bathroom—
Aunts and nephews bathing together beneath the
Stained glass Pietas and Eucharist's.
I want you to attend my eyes as I steal away your bicycles,
As I hijacks your airplanes—but you have already
Gone down into the holes of your Earths,
You are already warm and dry—
Goldilocks of a children's story—
When you awaken after the thundershower,
Will you eat all of the dandelions underneath the sky—
Or will you remain for a moment with your ruby soul
As nude as the junked cars underneath the moon—
Will you look at me hiking up the hill towards the fire tower
That looks down over all of the properties
Lying like pilgrims beneath you—
And will you recognize that I remain a zoetrope to your
Shadow, dancing like something that isn't real
Through the ashes of the fire that has long since burned away.