A Sonnet on the Folly of Russia’s $20 Decillion Demand

How bold a sum that Moscow seeks to claim,
A sum beyond the worth of all the earth—
$20 decillion, no reason or aim,
A figure mocking reason’s humble birth.

Not all the wealth that nations might amass,
Nor treasures stored within the deepest sea,
Could satisfy this sum of zeros vast,
A dream, a whim, a daft hyperbole.

Though Google’s power spans the digital age,
Its market worth a modest trillion two,
This claim, this charge, this legal, frantic rage,
Soars higher than the courts could e’er construe.

For logic bends, and Moscow’s aims grow strange,
In chasing shadows, numbers out of range.