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Cleopatra’s Vision
"Give me my robe, put on my crown, I have
Immortal longings in me."
Did you know that Cleopatra killed herself?
In Egypt, death by snakebite secures immortality. It”™s a rule.
Until recently, well, yesterday, most of what I knew about Cleopatra was from Shakespeare, and admittedly I haven”™t read The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, save a few excerpts. Thus, I didn”™t know How it Ends. She”™s such an obvious historical figure: Her popularity made her common and uninteresting in my eyes.
That has changed.
What does a young queen think before she allows the Asp to strike?
What will it be like?
Life goes strange, backward”¦ Rome
now rises in the west, Egypt sets to
the east””O eastern star! This world
is no longer livable.
A new vision, wherein I see instants
for an hour: Ra”™s last lights blaze
upon me in the dusk, blind me””
His unblinking stare, white-hot, it is
noon on the Sahara in his inverted
eye””Our day-lives, bound, grow
old together””Then sleep. Everything
sleeps. Even the sands are tired.
Shhh”¦ Do you hear the silent-dark?
All calm. Egypt waits for Osiris”™ call.
"With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool
Be angry, and dispatch."
Always a serpent with us girls, isn”™t it.
*All italics are Act V, scene ii, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
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