Rooks

When the rooks were laid in the piles By the sides of the road Crashing into the aerials Tangled in the laundry lines And gathered in a field They were burned in a feathering pyre With their cold black eyes When the swallows fell from the eaves And the gulls from the spires The starlings, in millions Would feed on the ground where they lie The ambulance men said There's nowhere to flee for your life So we stay inside And we'll sleep until the world of man is paralyzed Oh, the falconer awakes to the sound of the bells Overhead and southbound They are leaving his life And each empty cage just rings in his heart like a bell Underneath these cold stars In this trembling light And he cries Amen, let their kingdom come tonight Let this dream be realized And we'll sleep until the world of man is paralyzed