If A City...

If a city
If a city
If a city is set upon a hill
Under the flight of birds
Over on the Downs
Are the flights of birdsong

If under the Golden Calf
Dozing buried under
Under the grass and moss
In the sweet shadow of that hill
If the middle of the well is a wing of gold

Down the passed path
And long along the way
Is a city
And if that city holds a man
And in that man
Is a city on the heights of all the planets

That have uprised
And upset the stars
And in that woman
Who circles that city
Her musk trace silver
Under her feet
If the city street is silent
And mute dogs surround

The woman who circles the city
In the field, she lies
And over her bed
Shakes beyond the daisies
Of the city wall
Beyond past the flowers
That flow like queens

Into the city set upon a height
The pitchforks by home
In the throat of the corn
His eyes; the colours
Of clouds at nights
If before the sunflowers
Drowned by those suns

If by those flowers
The city is unwell
I am still there
Inside you like a city
And if the city gate is shut
In the day and not the night
If the peacock is banished
And burns with a song

If under God's wing
By the jawbone and hee-haw
The donkey creeps silently
Through the door in the hall
Then plague and mice
And the woodlice stream