Valentines Gifts Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Prevalence of lost as the cars go home,
And smoke drifts
To the sky like evaporations of sign language:
Girls bouncing in school,
As if across a lake- they go jogging along
The curbs,
Their little ankles kissed by pigeons and
Water moccasins who sleep there,
Though I suppose you’ve never seen them:
Damsels hypnotized by
Spokes of bicycles with golden ingots
In the braids of their handlebars:
The traffic lights and the power lines
Behind them for decoration,
And the sky tumbling like a heavy confection
In the orange groves which smell of
Her long neck,
Pollinated- like a naked hollow
Where she rests, and the ants drink her sweat
Or carry it down to their opulent queen
For valentines gifts the size of diamonds.