i think you are a whole city


and yesterday when i first touched
you i started moving
thru one of your suburbs
where all the gardens are fresh
with faces of you
flowering

some girls are only houses
maybe a strip 
development
woman you are miles
of boulevards with supple trees
unpruned and full of winding
honesties

so give me time    i want
i want to know
all you squares and cloverleafs
im steering now by a constellation
winking over this nights rim
from some great beachside of you
with highrises and a spotlit
beaux arts

i can hear your beat-
ing center   will i
will i make it
are there maps of you
i keep circling
imagining
parks fountains your stores

back in my single
bed i wander  your stranger
dreaming i am 
your citizen



Earle Birney, New Poems of the Seventies