On a back road of ‘Bamako
                                      la Coquette’

                       —sunset a Coleman
                         Pack-Away lantern

its 4 D alkaline
batteries shot—

a little kid tapping
a skinny tire

                                      with a stick,
                           then he stopped:

                         kyrielle of bulbuls
                                        bickering,

brushfire smoke
from a laterite pit—

I saw
that he was pointing

                                                   not
             what he was pointing at