Cleopatra's Apprentice

An unknown fact: Cleopatra had an apprentice
He’d kneel beside her and serve her vinegar-and-pearl concoctions
in canopic jars adorned with the head of Anubis painted in blood
She took him as her lover and doused him with power
and thought Julius Caesar had nothing on him
She wrung his innocence out right through his eyes—
Burned it and kept the ashes in her mausoleum heart
She taught him many things and he ruled as her secret king
He served her well; his Goddess, his Isis incarnate
and in turn, she loved him completely

When she died he spread rose petals at her feet and took his memories to scribes
who copied his embellishments into print and made her truly immortal
His tears, they drowned her palace which sits still on the ocean floor
his own private Atlantis, he haunts it eternally