Bildungsroman Poem by Robert Rorabeck

I do not know how to love her properly;
My mind sparks words that have no fear,
The heart-strung knights
Who leap upon the world. Like entrepreneurs,
They push back the devilish borders
Of scaled and undulating beasts
Who have a taste for virgins;
But alone at night I hear
Myself crying,
While the wide world creeks
Like the bowels of an empty ship,
Utter less, adrift at sea;
I don’t know the mathematics to control her.
I can find no direction in the stars which
Churn above in briary paths which only
Lead me deeper in.
Set adrift on a drunken ship who is my master,
I can only cry out madly to her safe on shore.
A paraplegic traveler, I am stung
By the great beauties and terrors
Of the deep world;
As she sometimes turns me on,
Laughing at the show.
Not knowing how very close to death I am,
She enjoys a snack and then
Turns to give a salted-buttery kiss
To a casual lover.