Cleopatra at Mersa Matruh
So many shades of blue
existing together
in a sea of clear water
rippling over a beach
of fine white sand.
A massive rock rose
out of the sea,
hollowed by the slow
grind of erosion
into three natural rooms.
In one, a sunken pool
emptied and filled
as the tide ebbed and flowed.
It was here, to her capital,
Mersa Matruh, that Cleopatra
retreated with Antony
after the disaster at Actium,
knowing she’d be blamed for the defeat.
All day she bathed in the limpid pool
or sat in the sheltered cool.
She gazed up at the strange shapes
of the water-and-wind-worn rocks,
bright in the blaze of morning,
violet gray in the dimming light.
Anne Whitehouse is the author of poetry collections: The Surveyor’s Hand, Blessings and Curses, The Refrain, Meteor Shower, Outside from the Inside, and Steady, as well as the art chapbooks, Surrealist Muse (about Leonora Carrington), Escaping Lee Miller, Frida, and Being Ruth Asawa. Adrienne Fidelin Restored is forthcoming.
