Queries on Cleopatra

She casually threw the question in the air:

" When Caesar was killed where was Cleopatra?"

I thought she was Cleo of Petra.

I was called a fool and told it was not e but a!

Patra.

You need not try to further ascertain.

Cleo, however, she may amuse you,

Is not the muse of Petra, that's certain?

The name Cleopatra had one spelling, but pronounced

Differently three different ways

By her hopeful lovers who flirted, fretted and flounced

In Caesar and Cleopatra

George B. Shaw did the first part of her story.

In Caesar and Cleopatra.

William Shakespeare did the last part of her story.

I am telling all these after I have aroused the ire

Of that avid reader of Julius Caesar

Who casually threw the question in the air:

" When Caesar was killed was Cleopatra in Rome?"

She did not ask me the question to answer.

I was a fool; I looked up and found the answer

In a little Encyclopedia, yes, Cleopatra was in Rome
.

She was mad, being deprived of reading a hefty tome

On ancient Rome ---- Rome that was Rome.

She is a great book-lover.

She loves to read a book cover to cover.

She hates skipping.

She hates photocopying.

She hates to deprive the author of his copyright.

I must say, she is absolutely right.

I deeply felt sorry for depriving her

Of reading more about Cleopatra and Caesar.

In future I promise I shall never volunteer

Information, even a correct one to clear steer.

I shall keep silence, but still for my affection

For her I may choose to stand by her in attention.

Soon the book-lover casually threw a question,

Though not specifically for my attention:

"One of the two needles of Cleopatra

Is on the Thames Embankment in London.

I wonder where is the other one!"

Did she say it aside or did she soliloquize?

Should I keep quite, and let me be rather wise?

Should I say Cleopatra's Needles couldn't be found?

In the haystacks of the hoary history around

Or in the hefty tome on the ancient Rome

-- Rome that was Rome?

I kept quiet and did not say her to consider

That it was rather a recent story of loot and plunder.

She looked up and feigned searching the ceiling

And repeated the question with a troubled feeling:

"One of the two needles of Cleopatra

Is on the Thames Embankment in London.

I wonder where is the other one!"

I do not know when I involuntarily spoke out, "Hark!

It might be in New York's Central Park."

She never liked the books of easy to find references.

Was she then really within her senses?

When she said rather regally, " Good! Very good!"

Am I to believe that those words she did really utter,

As I always find it very difficult to understand her?