Tomb Epitaph

THREE POEMS

TOMB EPITAPH

I Cleopatra, queen of Egypt and

Once mistress of the sea that bounds her rim-

I, called the Raven-haired-

Because a voice has spoken from the sky

Do here make my farewell to all the world,

The three-times-listening world.

I say farewell to sky and land and sea,

To Asia, and the shores of sinuous Greece,

And to the august Rome.

To all the captains of my armed men,

To dancing girls in Alexandria streets,

And desert stones.

To galleys red upon the restless sea,

To sweating oarsmen, slaves-all things of me-

To bronze full-bellied bulls.

I say farewell to all the tombed kings,

The stiff-robed priests, the golden-tasseled cats,

And painted moons.

Farewell to all who whitened when I passed-

In Forum or beside the great lord Nile;

To all who loved my feet.

To Caesar's shade-yes, lean great Caesar's shade;

To his steel eye and to his pensive brow,

To his thin princely hand.

I say farewell to Marcus Antony,

The column-necked, the brazen, laughing man

With eager lips.

Farewell to music in the sunset hour,

To trumpet calls on nights of festival,

And to the jeweled feast.

Farewell to the blue courtyard where we played,

Arsinoé and Ptolemy and I,

Long, long ago!

For now I go, an enemy of shame-

Like some swift chariot free from battle clouds-

Into the waiting night.

They say that death is black, and dumb besides;

But I will light a golden babel there-

I, Cleopatra-Flame.

ROSE