Her More Prestigious Gentleman Poem by Robert Rorabeck

For just a little longer, pain,
To get what you want to, perhaps-
A year or two more with your dogs,
Your parents and their disapproving scowls.
Who would have believed their son would turn
Out an antisocial hippie with a thing for
Cherry Pop-Tarts:
And the days, and the days, and the days flip over
Like picture books for the pug nosed kids tucked into
Bed up to their chins in claret sunsets, and saccharine sheets:
Who would have believed, that it would go like this:
You and your dogs celibate- might as well be
Neutered- A good man, healthy canines, and the stars,
Most of whom you don’t know- a little uneasy
Under the mirror, the way things always were-
How they began to make fun of you at parties,
Because you got too drunk and passed out and drooled,
And vomited, and how they thought about calling the paramedics,
Because they thought you had alcohol poisoning,
But you only leapt up, pissed on them, and ran out
Through the cloistered hibiscus, leaping on the back
Of an alligator in the canal, and spurred it to swim away,
To the secret parks where the clouds overshadowed the moon,
And the obscure footprints in the penumbra on the grass from all
The soccer stars, the whined housewives, and the libidos
Of silk- The things you are supposed to say while sharing
Dinner, the way most of the thoughts drift towards sex,
And the jumpy eyes falling upon the aspects they find pleasing,
And then leaping away-
Surely tonight, you are drunk, and those nights back then you
Were certainly an outcast, even if you were the only one to escape
From the cops in Wellington- Now, all those fools are becoming
Something, building up reputations, producing television,
Stifling farts, great adjectives, but in your singular weathers
You will survive until you have no more teeth,
And by then you will be at home on your humid island,
Where there is only one serial killer, though you have nothing to
Fear, for the sky is filled with rapture, and she has long since
Gone and married her more prestigious gentleman.