"i drank cleopatra's bath water"

"i drank cleopatra's bath water"
bastardized and baptized by jake kilroy.

i drank cleopatra's bath water,
and it tasted of cobra's blood and wine,
a shaky cocktail to take down to destroy
every empire between the head and the heart.

hot damn, goddamn, i pulled scripture out of my mouth,
like a magic trick gone rotten from resting too long in death.
i coughed up what sand wasn't used to cover the past,
where the statues were buried neck-high to show god a thing or two.
what a caravan it was to witness the long march of lovers,
wasting away in memory, distant yet warm still,
from here, a throne, immobile and arrogant!

grief took us then—took us apart—struck a match against our bones,
and we were suddenly nothing without every indulgence imaginable.
i would've swallowed swords if i had known the taste of battle,
but i could only play my ribs like a poor man's percussion,
and the marching band had been sentenced to a long life of doldrums.

i wanted her then, a fiery queen that was a pain in the asp,
telling jokes like a jester but making love like her king;
just one that wouldn't tell her to calm down, but conquer instead.