Cleopatra The Matron Poem by Terence Murphy

I have always loved you said Apolodorous the slave
And I have always known, Queen Cleopatra replied
At their end as the fatal Roman army's approached
She would have shocked us now as a proper object of mad desire
No long legged swimsuit model as the handmaidens surrounding her,
Bought for their beauty, but a respectable Roman matron
Who children and years had made more herself
Caesar and mad Anthony had decided she should pause being a woman
To become a goddess bathed in asses milk
But freed by approaching legions to open his lips then
At the end of all rules of propriety
The Greek could have snatched the kisses long desired
But made the simpler choice whose truth still murmurs
Quietly between only them as lovers truths should,
That he had always loved her, that she had always known.