Ulysses in a bottle
Walking down the beach today
I found Ulysses in a bottle,
All of the secret strength and
Unfaded masculinity of
That secret sect of men who have it all:
Looks, muscles, arrogance, hardness.
I held it in my small hands,
Contemplating to take a drink,
To imbue in myself those qualities
Which I surely lack and sorely seek.
So I raised the glass to my lips,
And as the sacred liquid began to drip
My eyes caught a glimmer on the surf.
I kept my beautiful Ulysses in a bottle
And walked back down the beach
To where a radiant woman stood in the tide.
Her face shined with compassion and warmth
As she spoke to my heart without words,
"Is this truly what you want?"
She offered me her hand lovingly,
So delicate and frail and yet
Full with its own kind of secret strength,
A strength that my Ulysses in a bottle
Failed to comprehend. Trembling,
I looked once at the bottle,
Then at the offered hand, and finding
What masculine strength I possessed,
Pitched the bottle back into the sea.
sashay.