Edmonia bolts the studio door.
For a while, breathing is her triumph.
Then she kneels in what she meant to save,
but couldn’t, leaving prints in the dust and shattered stone.
Really, she only ruined part of an arm and a shoulder,
the chance for Cleopatra to sit straight on her throne.
Even stones give second chances.
She’ll show the queen with her head tilted,
as she might have been when she was dead or dying.
She’ll sculpt the asp, the small beast
that changed everything,
though Cleopatra still commands.
Edmonia won’t hide what went wrong
but make it part of the whole.