Jerry Hicks

A Military Man's Man

How many
have ever visualized the great Caesar
as a fop
dandy
perfumed homosexual?

He was--
at least in his youth.

Caesar's warm reception
at the King of Bithynia's court
won him the nickname
Queen of Bithynia--
epithet thrown at him
even on the Senate floor.

Caesar wore clothing
with studied carelessness,
kept body clean of hair
fussed so endlessly
with his thinning locks
Cicero said: "When I see
his hair so carefully arranged
and observe him adjusting it with one finger,
I cannot imagine
it would enter such a man's thoughts

to subvert
the state.

---found poem from "The West and the World"

 

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