Carthage Burns

Carthage burns    
That Phonican daughter of Tunisian suns      
The stars forfeit the heavens to billowing smoke      
Only flame and the acrid taste of black on black      
All is black before my face      
But we were classics once, weren't we darling      
      
Words      
Like marauding armies      
Legions unleashed      
No questions asked  
No quarter given  
     
The fields are sown with salt      
And gardens laid waste      
But I like wild flowers anyways      
No more empires at play, to jest or joust  
Throw caution into the hazard      
All is deadly earnest now      
I can see it in your eyes      
So I got some BBQ at Voodoo Ray's      
No Hamilcar      
No Hannibal or Hasdrubal, I      
     
Here no fair Helen whose beauty launched a thousand ships      
As if that's what this war is all about      
But I'll tip LaTonya for service with a smile      
As I dig into my ribs      
Only the dead left to bury the dead      
But every sword has two edges      
     
Slaves and chattel      
The chain and the lash      
That sweet Roman caress      
But you take no prisoners  
Do you      
     
Kool Cadillac Mixon and The All Nighters      
Playing a cover of "Heart of Steel"      
Out the window lays the harbor in the distance      
I watch as my good intentions take flight      
Torched one by one by unreasonable reason      
Flickering      
Like pagan funeral barges in the night      
And the band played on      
     
No fugitive Aeneas among vagabonds here      
I light my bridges and watch them burn      
They say fire is the devils only friend      
Didn't Horatius destroying the bridge once save Rome      
He was a hero and I a villain      
And you safe within your fortress      
Are quite put out with mine      
     
They say love is blind      
They say justice is blind      
I say, I'll have a shot of whiskey      
Straight      
Might as well drink myself blind      
     
Wars are hell...here's looking at you kid