The Afternoon Goddess Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Laughing as they could in their rooms of the groomless
Proud:
The way they looked up on their brooms sweeping up in the
Sky far away from how I felt:
Glistening from the school yard, making a marmalade sweep of
My tomb;
And I thought that it looked so pretty, and the lions could
Almost be heard yawning-
Like the alligators- like the pyramids: and Alma got up in the sleek
Sunshine and arose:
Her armpits glossy with sweat and primrose: and the coral
Snakes watched her from the windowsill as she dressed:
And the otters played- and then they regressed:
And the bicycles all looked sloppy beneath the slopes of
Turpentine:
And I got on one of the seats on the bus as it drove down the
Street and I bit my lip;
I bit my tongue- and then it returned us from
School to our home,
Like children pursuing ants on a baseball diamond:
All I could think of was to make her mine- as the clouds shed
Their illusions in the sky:
But waiting for us at home was only lonely cartoons:
As it happened- the muse, the afternoon goddess was nowhere
Around;
But the paper airplanes folded up upon themselves, and the aircondition
Cursed the stewardesses who were also nowhere around.