Our Women’s History Month celebration would hardly be complete without the queen of them all, Cleopatra!

We offer a nine poem series, of which this is the second.

*****

Recorded Reading (2:26): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ne2zbqovov1eqic5i1b1h/cleo-too.mp3?rlkey=ykq3g7xxb9f5gvl3wjwyteobo&dl=0

*****

cleo too

she said
much later
to me

i loved the first
oh yes
but never the second
oh no

more beautiful
more shallow
no statesman
but a boy eternal
spoiled entitled
subject to no self discipline
despised by me

i knew my duty
as a queen

had learned
the falsification of love
from its genuine experience
goddess help me
i prostituted every bit of it
to give civilization
as i knew it
just
a few more
precious
years

this soft body
ravaged
by the throes of the old
stone dying gods
against the metal
jaws
of the
oncoming
modern
machine

o sister soul
believe me
when the time came
to hold that asp
to my breast

i was sickened
i was sick to my soul

the roar of
all of burning wisdom
ten thousand screaming women
seemed only the outcry
appropriate to that moment
my own inner condition…

did i smile, you say?
was it —
was it truly so, then
beautiful
at the last?

they would have told me so
but then
they would have had to!

i tried to listen only enough
to give me necessary power
not enough to bring
me down
and us all to grief

such delicate, delicate
balances
always
everywhere

i hardly remember

was i able one more time to
hold my head up high
and to smile for them?

it makes me
happy to hear it
they were good women
good to me

and i was so
by then
so
ready
to let
it all go…

*****

Until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ and to begin once again to create professional connections and to rebuild her life, this poet presently lives homeless and at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level ~ still working seven days a week to contribute to her society, however.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S, or choose to send a personal check to the poet’s ABLE account. It takes about two weeks for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

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