I heard the noise of casual horses underneath <br />The pines, <br />And then the moon was unsecured and drifting- <br />I was frightened because my dictionary was <br />As slender as an anxious poetry volume, <br />But I wanted to impress you, and I didn’t want to <br />Die until I had impressed your lips with the sponge <br />Of blindly reaching life, <br />Even though I have nothing else to sell, and you <br />Are already diademed and truncated and beautiful in <br />A crèche of stolen automobiles, <br />And your eyes are never around anymore at the séances <br />Of high school drinking fountains- <br />I am creased like a delicate thinker, grayed on a stone <br />Down in the valley of an empty parking lot- <br />And all the planes are leaping as if in a ballet, as if <br />Choreographed by an effeminate flight instructor- <br />I don’t want to leave off even though the bus will never <br />Be returning to me, and all the tamed lions have died <br />Who used to sing to me on afternoons of sun showers <br />And Saturdays in their permastone habitats circumnavigated <br />By the uncouth but jolly tourisms; and I have choice cuts of <br />Flesh and dollar bills to temp you with, and influence you <br />Down from your tall gardens: <br />I can feed you and a child in the effervescing light <br />Of televisions and trailer parks too. Come down, <br />Come down and let me wonder close for awhile, prowling <br />Your hypnotic smells, <br />Suddenly reintroduced to extinct but roomy <br />Foliage. Let me imagine <br />Animals in your bosom’s Siamese <br />Nest- and let me wonder how many bones you <br />Have in your hand; <br />If I guess correcting what will you let me win, <br />Or band you with; and I just have <br />To say before the nightmares of fried chicken <br />And unicorns are coming home that being near you seems to <br />Palpitate my soul like wet clay- <br />Like wet clay that dances for you in the sunlight of a room.<br /><br />Robert Rorabeck<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-sunlight-of-a-room/
