When Venus wished to tie Dido to Aeneas
to make her useful to him, she asked Amor
to feign the appearance of Aeneas' son, Ascanius,
for one evening, while the real son was whisked away.
Amor laid aside his wings and became a Phrygian boy,
effeminate and puffy, moving with his wavering gait
in front of Dido, sidling up to her and smearing
her cheeks and lacy dress with yet invisible blood.
Similar to patterns woven behind the walls of Troy
by women spending each day like the last day,
conjuring their impossible future in dye and wool,
Dido's thoughts began to burn with the startling intensity
of a long life being brutally compressed into mere weeks,
while the poor woman imagined she was falling in love.