Dido is driving on
county road 9
past the last defenses
they put up beside the
town’s water tower
where we enjoyed
more than just the summer time.

We are sitting in Syracuse
palm shade but rather it
is café cloth made so what

lies did you tell sis so
she would burn you down
in Mississippi style right
there on the blackened grain lined beach

and I knew one day a
man would set down in
the corner store and ask
about the little embers
cast like scarab beetles and
say his name was Hannibal and
I was wondering if you could sell me
a few saddles and some spears
because Elkhorn was just annexed down the road
and we could be next.  I am

counting all the scarab beetles
strangely clicking on the
gravel road as you come
wailing and on fire in my
head.

At Carthage we have decided
to build a telephone pole
and stick it in the sand
so the elephants can feel
small, again.