Poem : Tongueless Lions

Walking today

I passed by

Two lions with no tongues

Their mouths gaped open

Showing their dagger-like teeth

Made of stone

They stood watch

At the mouth of Matanzas Bay

Watching the tourists pass by

With their flip-flops

Greeting each step they took

With a light thud to their heel

Oversized visors adorn their heads

Like crowns

They are worn

By the rulers of the child army

That follow behind them

Little Tommy

Little John

Fight with plastic swords

While

Little Jane rolls her eyes

At their behavior

I’m guessing this isn’t the last time

I will see them today

They’ll probably

Be picking away at the fort

In a few hours

For four hundred and forty one years

It’s never been taken in battle

Yet

The tourists

Have almost laid siege to her structure

Wearing her down

One chip at a time

The Castillo’s ghosts

Are probably chewing Valerian Root

By the mouthful

Just to get through their day

Yes

Ghost hunting has become big business

In the oldest city in America

Groups of hunters passing one another

On winding brick streets

Washed with moonlight

Looking with wide stretched eyes

To see, if they see, what might be seen

Paying money to

Walk about in a world

Like the pages 

Of a Dickens’s novel

All while

The tongueless lions gaze at them

With marble eyes