Archy and Mehitabel They are the most unlikely of friends: Archy is a cockroach with the soul of a poet, and Mehitabel is an alley cat who traces her lineage back to Cleopatra. Not to a cat in Cleopatra's time, mind you, but to Cleopatra herself. Together, cockroach and cat are the foundation of one of the most engaging collections of light poetry to come out of the twentieth century.