If's Poem by Robert Rorabeck

If I saw tamed lions walking in the sea
With seahorses riding in their manes,
There would never have been a civil war
In Spain;
And little girls torn by kites high up in
The trees,
They’ll look down at the parks of the world,
The reedy lakes now all of it no taller
Than their scabby knees-

And, in the afternoon, when all the buses have
Gone home,
And there is no more music lessons,
And each kind of little bird is building its nest
In the gutters or the limbs,
And I saw the trapeze-cat walking a tight rope
From this home to the first moon,
To steal your birthstones,

I would lay out a saucer of milk as a reward
To fill my hands with the jewelry of your notions,
To eavesdropp on water-skiers,
And the specters of the service industry
Who used to be teenagers, smoking in the park,
Burning little holes,
And misty arcs hung on chains;

And if I said I’d love you,
You would not complain, but hang on me
Like a fruit in its garden-
We would watch airplanes skipping- if
You would take my name.