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# Cleopatra the First
- URL: https://www.hawkword.com/poetry/cleopatra-the-first/
- Published: 2021-08-12T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2021-08-12T12:00:00.000Z
- Description: Helen of Troy would surely have been jealous Whose beauty truly launched a thousand ships? Who was a living goddess to her zealous and pious subjects, their apocalypse
- Author: A. Gee
- Tags: Poetry, Allpoetry Import, #Import 2026-04-25 19:56

Helen of Troy would surely have been jealous  
Whose beauty truly launched a thousand ships?  
Who was a living goddess to her zealous  
and pious subjects, their apocalypse

A Greek ruling in Egypt, woman, mother  
Within a whisker of “Queen of the World”  
Her lovers vying to outdo each other  
Antony, Caesar, banners are unfurled

She hid in Caesar’s carpet – this seduction  
Egyptian pharaoh tames a Roman beast  
Planted the seed of Caesar’s own destruction  
A Roman Consul, smitten by the East

Then Rome, Caesarian, and what comes after  
Escape to Alexandria and war  
Death by a snake, or hairpin, and the laughter  
Augustus, now a dictator, and more

What would have been if Anthony had stricken  
Octavian, when he was close to home  
We cannot know it, but the pulse does quicken  
To think of Cleopatra, Queen of Rome

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**Author notes:** https://allpoetry.com/contest/2785551-Cleopatra