in between

I finished a new poem yesterday and shared it on social media so figured I might as well post it here as well. I started it on the 4th and then the Queen passed away so I took a few days to think about what I really wanted to say. It came together a week later and now I have no MS Word documents open for the first time in a long time. I’ve been weepy all week and suspect it has more to do with menopause than recent events. I cry at cat food commercials and I’m definitely not a monarchist so I can’t say that I’m mourning the Queen. But I did remove one line from the original version of this poem—“good riddance, I say”—because it just didn’t feel right. I have no problem with folks dancing on the grave of their enemy; someone heckled Prince Andrew (a “disgraced duke”) as he walked behind the hearse in Edinburgh today and I fully support that person’s right to do what he did. I wouldn’t make that choice but I don’t really have any impulse to defend the members of the royal family. One of the poems I wrote earlier this year is called “You Made Me Love You” and it’s all about the ways culture can be used to seduce and/or gaslight oppressed people. What did Malcolm X say? “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” And it’s not just the media—look at the popularity of shows like Downton Abbey and The Queen. They’re designed to humanize royals and aristocrats whose wealth largely came from the exploitation and oppression of “the masses” and people of color in particular. It’s important to be critical of problematic institutions and there will be no “reform” now that the UK has a king. After spending most of his life advocating for the preservation of the environment, Charles is promising to hide his political views because of “tradition.” If you can’t use your power and platform to create change, to correct the wrongs of your ancestors, then what’s the point? I’m tired of the endless media coverage but I recognize that the Queen was a person and a symbol, and she means different things to different people. I finished my poem and that’s all I have to say…for now.