after a fragment of Sappho

Love-crazed despots think armies
of cavalry, continents of soldiers
on foot, fleets measured in oceans
they fill the most beautiful things

on earth; but I know nothing more
than the power of my love — not
hard to explain. Helen could not
take her eyes off a man

she judged beautiful, the man
who destroyed what honor
Troy possessed, led astray by love
with no thought of generations

lost. We are easy
to lead when we
can be made
to look elsewhere. I know

in this world one cannot have
what is best. But it is better
to pray for a dream shared
once than to forget.

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