March 7, 2022, 9:45 p.m.

Sonnet 1: For like ambassadors' the tongues of love

wonder systems

For like ambassadors' the tongues of love
  Are all arrogant and subtle and kept
Extraterritorial as distant lungs
  Each breathe stolen as sovereignty slept;

And if a sudden distance hints of war
  Grim structures strangling possibility
With ornate surrender behind closed doors,
  And power rung in with old symbology;

So too may they be seen a-mingling
  Offering strangenesses, playing the fool
In floral words with a distant jingling
  Superior corruptions sweet and so cool.

      But while love has life outside of wedlock,
      Ambassadors have little without a dreadnought.

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