Women activists in Tunisia poetry by Arturo Desimone

And All you Queens of Carthage

All you Queens of Carthage

Mutinous Didos  never really die

Dido never really died

And All you Queens of Carthage

All you Queens of Carthage

should the secret police

in their pink striped suits

touch one obsidian hair

I will slit their throats 

I will sink

their little

motor-boats

All those secret cops

Work for a great Stellar pimp

Dressed in pin-stripe plainclothes

with a vulgar tricolor French flag-pin,

the wannabe

Yes those tranquil policemen

work for the Supreme Pimp

I will shoot them

till they walk with a limp

Should they dare curse-breathe

or bugger 

one obsidian hair

Beware

beware

should they touch 1 singular

obsidian hair

All you 

Carthaginean Stripeless, Sweet Knife-eyed

Baronesses

 I want you to know I know

that which you already knew

I want you 

to know that I know

that which you

already knew

that Dido never truly dies

Dido never literally died

This was Dido's only singular

lie

Sung from reddest, genuine Pulse

Once she's cobbled 

her Pulse back together

the segments of

dishevelled red tulip bulb

She barely needs me

To drown her enemies

She doesn't depend

only on me

to tighten the pink scarf

of her enemy

But it's the gesture that resonates

Arturo Desimone, Tunis, Tunisia

May 2011, all rights reserved