Xerxes the King frowns through dark glasses
flanked on the viewing stand by admirals
and the bloated eunuchs of his staff.
Newsreel film crews crowd a nearby platform
documenting this day’s events for all Persia.
In line along the beach before him
the piked heads of his former engineers —
Egyptians and Phoenicians whose bridge had failed.

But Xerxes would also punish these waters —
he will not sacrifice to this stream.
At a subtle gesture of his hand
the countdown begins its descent toward detonation.
The device triggers on zero. Xerxes glares.
Over the atoll a small sun flares.