Rosaly DeMaios Roffman: Putting Together The World’s Craziness

To see a row of cars

like a line of raisins

in your hand—civic, legacy, raisin

to see from this fauve window

in this antiseptic room a Professor

full of longing for an absent sea-father

–a mooning man from Wichita Falls,

holding forth on his beloved Melville

invoking the fishing lines and locks

of the sleeping villages of Maui

yes, to see wakes in me

the story of Maria’s uncle Sidney,

whose last wish from his cage,

as he would go on and on

was to pluck a joey from a kangaroo

Then he could cradle in his arms

an animal baby in a big city

that he insists is named for him–

besides he likes to say “joey,”

–he says “joey” over and over

and at ninety he wants to see

what it’s like to be the mother

he needs still, the one he never had

to hold his little hand, his hand still little

Today I thought no one in the world

seems to me small or very crazy

Copyright 2018 Rosaly DeMaios Roffman

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Baby orphaned Kangaroo plays at The Kangaroo Sanctuary, Alice Springs. [Photo: Pinterest]