–carefully, he said,
placing armies in Siam–
unaware that I

employ caution in
all our dealings, hidden words
here, omitted touch

there. He thinks we
are tentative allies, fears I
could betray in a

murmur, take on his
brashness with equal force,
humiliate, taunt, and then destroy.

He is wrong;
he may have Kamchatka now–
for I am ever loathe

to shatter a thing
so gloriously sexy
as his
megalomania.

J. Bowers