Poetry: The Book of my Enemy — Once Smitten, Twice Smitten | clivejames.com
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Once Smitten, Twice Smitten


Peter Porter as Enobarbus

There goes her barge without me. Did she spot
Me lurking in the reeds as she swept by?
Ra only knows. What gets her I’ve not got.
No ranks below Triumvir need apply.

I’m just a scribe in plastic sandals. She
Squats on a golden throne, I on this log.
How does it feel to screw a dynasty?
Caesar found out, but he was not a wog.

And now it’s Antony that fuels her fires.
The lucky bastard lies in wait down-Nile.
Some Keystone Copts are shouting. It transpires
I’m sitting on a sacred crocodile.