Little Cynthia


Tiny Cynthur-gloeven, two years old
Etruscan and shielded by breasts
Her father's sword before her
Failing redly before Romulus
An unmarked swampy grave.

Little Centhe, aged six winter battles
Roman shields her bedstand
Centurians and legions around her
Breached by Visigoth and Hun
Faded glyphs of broken marble mausoleum.

Bright and eager Cynthraxia, of eight French summers
Burgundian knights protect her castle
Rams and ladders of Norsemen
Axes of Thor on their necks
Lost below the moat's bridge stones.

Canthevos, ten years joy in Barcelona
Spanish armor and regalia
Lances and horses and siege engines
Surrounded by Moorish unforgiving
Buried no one knows where.

Cynthia, American and fourteen
Protected by no one of use
Trapped by guns, drugs and pedophile
Vexed by starvation and poison
An elaborate, flowery tomb.