I threw up watchtowers taller than my need
With bare walls the enemy could not scale,
I wrenched stone from the near countryside
And built my city on the highest hill;
Over the land I scarred I reared
Impenetrable the walls and citadel.
Then to approach the city from afar
All you could see was soaring, there was such peace
Knowing the city mine I lay secure.
My own, one night, woke me – every face
A jutting rock relief in glare,
The torchlight that illumined new distress.
They lit me into darkness. The harsh sun –
My understanding dazzled when it dawned –
Disclosed me vulnerable. I stumbled on,
Till blown, a sterile seed, by years like wind
Indifferent guidance, I am set down
Among familiar stone in a changed land.
Now it is only details I perceive:
The towers lopped, stone interspersed with weed
In patches; a deeper speckling seems to give
Form to the complex of decay, but is fled
With a lizard flicker. Poppies revive,
In the wall they spatter, spectres of old blood.