Robert Rorabeck Poems

By strange visions I strike out, the lion defeated
And his pride taken over by strong drink:
I work all day and am harassed by knights whose skeletons can
Be seen through their suits:
...

You understand that I love you for real and that is
Why I am sweating out prostrate with my liquor and holding
Hands with the ethereal:
That I am so scarred and the ghosts are tatters, and the cars drive
...

The world feels like the static mariposas in strange auction;
And the night sleeps: perhaps it will enjoy the broken chrysalis of
Daylight,
When the love making happens and the song birds become so
...

I can smell you down here even if you don’t
Really exist,
Children in boxcars- runts in shoeboxes;
And my head has a great apoplexy and it has been half
...

The city dissolves; the planes are played out; and I want to develop
A potbelly for Thanksgiving:
There are so many questions which I still need to ask Alma;
And I already love her children: Her children who are so carefree that
...

Beautiful and sudden ventriloquism doing away
With all of the harpies so I just have Medusa to deal with,
And her cave is really beautiful and filled with cars;
Oh, I wish I had my own butterfly, this diminutive woman with
...

A day behind the curve of now:
A rainbow waiting through the snow: words that slips
Like sleeping minnows beside the prow:
All the kings buried on the pyres that somehow sail
...

I have tried for so many times to sound beautiful even while
Suddenly the zippers close;
And the body bags have their tags and the traffic slows to take out the
Jubilee;
...

I love you and I want your body with me in bed:
I want our toes to crochet together, while your hair is a
Shadowy red;
And never mind that I have ever loved a white skinned Indian
...

Night slips through my hidden sorrows and I enjoy
This new pain:
It comes up to me like panthers wanting a free meal, and I
Only having my tired body:
...