I
Cleopatra, take what beauty
begrudgingly Venus offers
and poise yourself
with command of presence
The Nile inundates
your Hellenic heritage
those river maidens hold
the weaker form of comeliness
in but a score they fade
but your eyes shall be remembered
long after fateful asp
has caused limp body
your immortality shall sparkle
within distant imaginations
II
bitter nomes are daily broken
by that which Augustus
has plundered
those fields which produce
do so for their master
while Alexandrina is
all but forgotten
Augustus does not make pretense
to be Ra's representative
rather he claims the whole
as personal province
though time will gather
to his memory other doings
as men shall overlook
the cruel loss of knowledge
III
now minerettes overshadow
that delta where god-men once stood
and the valley of tombs held life
even within the grip of death's ruse
now tourists of leisure
trample the temples
while vendors hawk falafel
now the Star Deities
are no longer heard
speaking to the rhythm
of that longest of rivers
though elsewhere
a few attempt remembrance
through hopeful revision
and I am one of them
Adding your comment:
especially when you do it.
