To The Modern Creature Of Troy Poem by RIC BASTASA

before you do it
you have to count
ten thousand ships
and a hundred thousand
waves

everything resonate
to an end
some are catastrophic
irreversible

now you are beside me
my hands are waiting
my heart is excited
everything in me is anxious
for the real thing
this action for a hundred
explosions of this
emotion

i have counted ten thousand
and one hundred forty three ships
and three hundred thousand waves
and after a while
i have come to the inevitable conclusion:

you are not worth it.
you have not launched a thousand ships
at all.