Avenues by Dennis Villelmi

Dangerous setting-
The avenues have departed.
Long since has it been when mother
Last closed her music box. 
In fact, I was but a boy of seven then;
Now, I'm a man haunted by a boy's half-dream:
The Minotaur among the honeysuckle,
Under a Minoan summer sun soon to be 
Honored with the blood of so many boys
Grown to soldiers.

For them, the avenues have departed;
There is no escape...
From Crete to Normandy and on to Basra-
The music box is only opened in a dead 
Boy's ears. 

    

* ("Avenues" first appeared on Dagda Publishing's poetry blog 
on May 1, 2013.) 





Dennis Villelmi is co-editor and interviewer for the dystopian webzine "The Bees Are Dead."  Aside from editing the poems of other writers, Mr. Villelmi has had much of his own work published on various online sites.  He resides in Virginia.