Robert Rorabeck Poems

The flesh of placebo angels luxuriates
On plastic hooks in penny candy and dime
Stores no fish in the world was ever afraid of;
And now I am all excited because I
...

cars forwards and
In back of
Me.
This life a road
...

In the garden of a witch and
The moon is a boat,
Fat as a tick:
I went over the wall to pick
...

And so we spoke of the time of angels—
And Shanghai became the kind of quiet that you can barely
Hear:
Translucency of echoes that come on winged carriages
...

The universe runs on your legs:
See it dressed up the stars of your limbs:
Oh,
The universe has bangs,
...

Daydreaming of grazing on a god,
Heaven seems almost possible:
Strange indescribable eyes are caught in
The teal bosoms of someone’s mountains,
...

Close your mouth and take me,
If you care to take me,
As you care, when your shift is over
At the ice-cream parlor,
...

Days begotten of firework chiefs:
Mighty good days, where tomahawks chew
Scalps red under unfiltered sunlight:
Then we knew who we were, what was going on,
...

In the callous divine of spikenard
And ambergris and bear-cats
What are you doing, but making your
Ever ready,
...

E- says she’s jealous,
But she still watches her team of boys sweat,
Pumping the cherry iron of fire-engines
And corvettes:
...