watching the queen on tv
it was shortly after the massacre
we were all glued to the news
children dead in a Scottish town
yet one step closer
to the apocalypse
of course we believed it all
immediately
it is the course of human progress
regardless of the extent
of prior villainy
we will make progress
we will do worse
never having been a monarchist
i was surprised
to find myself weeping
at her sadness
it occurred to me
that she was a mother
and seeing the wet red eyes
of other mothers
their homes hysterical
with the silent voices of children
she, the queen,
could no longer maintain
her queenly composure
and it was terribly sad
when she lay the flowers down
you could feel her angst
time and continents away
the unknowable burden
of being the mother of a nation
and the savior of no one
the sound of a pistol
cracks through the early spring air
a window slams shut
a truck backfires
morning shrugs itself into afternoon
afternoon slides into evening
darkness descends
Copyright© michael dennis
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