Oh Claudius, I have always loved you.
From the time you were born and I first held you to
The time you lost your first tooth;
When mother died, you consoled my broken heart
As I mended yours…
We were inseparable: you and I,
Our hearts did beat as one,
Or so I thought…
Were you jealous, brother?
Jealous of my crown?
Or of my wife, the Queen?
Did you loathe my very existence,
Simply because you were not me?
Though I thought of you with every breath,
Did you think of me as but a pest?
Did you wait with anticipation
For my final day?
To take what you felt was rightfully yours:
My crown, my Queen, my life and its praise,
Only to leave my body dug deep in its grave.
Me no more. No more my ways.
Merely shards left of the good old days.