Coming Back With The Rain Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Oh my, but my pedestal is empty:
She must have stepped off to use the bathroom,
Or go shopping-
She must have gotten tired while waiting to
Inspire- my art,
But you should have seen her fireworks:
They were all leggy, a chorus-line of shaven
Gypsum- She was taking time off serving drinks on
Airplanes,
Leaping the sea, so handsome;
So all the Bible salesmen blamed me on their
Descent in,
Their hands empty, their glasses thin,
And their lips were so hungry for her eyes:
I’m no good at explaining,
But everything she was selling was buy one get one
Free,
So the boys queued in her meadows: the bouncers,
The baseball players, and me;
And everything I did for her was extemporaneous,
But nothing I had to show her was original:
She said she would have liked it better if I was more toothy,
Feral, like one of the boys she’d heard mooning on the
Radio- Handsome, at least in general;
But all that old gang had done too much howling,
And they were so good at their husbandries and grooming,
They’d gotten married well before her show was over,
Prowling;
And she had nothing to show for it,
So busy was she in her cabaret’s preening:
Her entire career was empty, the bees had already knocked
Up their particular flowers;
And so I persuaded her up here into my
Moony studio; and then down into my gutters, and swung the neighbor’s
Galleries and swimming pools in to accentuate her,
And I climbed up some mountains and nearly died
Just to give her an example,
To remind her of her powers;
And I bought or stole her entire shops full of flowers;
But all of that only bought me an hour-
And I don’t know where the heck she went,
But my mind was bent, cause it knows there’s a billion goodly
Boys out fetching on their red diamonds,
Spitting tobacco, punchy, and well-versed at busting
Hymens:
But I’ll sing for her still from my open window, as
The empty sky feeds the corn field,
The defeated heroes hoe their friends with the serpent’s
Fangs;
And I draw her allures with my fingers, invisible,
Auburn bangs;
And pray that she comes back with the rain.