written in response to The New Yorker, September 10: The monarchy presents itself as a “mysterious and magical inheritor of an endless past.” Would Britain be better off without it?"
a double-rainbow
breaking through gray clouds
over Buckingham ...
on its gold and black rails
notice of the Queen's death
Oh god I hate this
as the "King" signs his name
with a leaking pen ...
I recall his "my luck" laughter
in the leaked "tampon" phone call
the adulterer
who once talked dirty on the phone
now Liege Lord --
a woman yelling Not My King
surrounded by policemen
"Prince" Andrew
walks behind the Queen's coffin
down the Royal Mile --
a shout from the packed crowd
you’re a sick old man
boos heard clearly
over the crowd of well-wishers
greeting the "King" --
on the Cardiff Castle walls
Abolish the Monarchy
a meteor
streaks across the sky
over London --
the Queen once claimed
I've to be seen to be believed
royal members
take turns to watch over
the Queen's coffin ...
"Prince" Andrew in uniform
as mourners file past, bowing
at last the end
of ten days of mourning ...
as the sun sets
in the shadow of Big Ben
an old man and his wife
new royal
favorites and suchlike
jostle for spots
on Buckingham Palace's balcony ...
kids in a bakery window
FYI: Child Poverty and Action Group, UK: ... There were 3.9 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2020-21. That's 27 per cent of children, or eight in a classroom of 30...
FYI: MoneyWise, September 18: The Crown Estate — estimated at over $34B in assets — now belongs to King Charles III. But he won't have to pay the UK's 40% inheritance tax.
Queen Elizabeth II's death involves a transfer of her personal wealth of roughly $500 million to her first son, Charles. That means he doesn’t have to send roughly $200 million of Queen Elizabeth’s $500 million estate to the tax collector.
And FYI: The New Yorker, September 10: "The Fantasy Behind Queen Elizabeth II’s Reign: The monarchy presents itself as a “mysterious and magical inheritor of an endless past.” Would Britain be better off without it?"
The job of the monarchy is “to provide a kind of space and style, a kind of mystique, a kind of secular religion, if you like, in which people can feel some sort of kinship and community with each other.
-- Simon Schama, Historian of British History
Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XXVIII
written on the day of the Queen's Funeral
inside Westminster Abbey
outside Westminster Abbey
two-minute silence
FYI: This haiku is a "politically neutral" sequel to my 9-tanka sequence, Imperial leftovers: Seeing Is Believing
Added:
Fallout
written in response to Judith Butler's remark: “One way of posing the question of who ‘we’ are... is by asking whose lives are considered valuable, whose lives are mourned, and whose lives are considered un-grievable.
long live the king
rest in peace, your majesty
written on the loaves ...
many food banks closed
for the Queen's funeral
our beloved Queen
forever in our thoughts
scrawled in black ink
on the top of the boulder
in Holocaust Memorial Garden
FYI: Yahoo News UK, September September 19: "Profoundly inappropriate:" Tributes left for Queen at Holocaust memorial spark backlash.
Added:
The Cost
a sequel to Imperial leftovers: Seeing Is Believing
after the Queen's death
biographers queue up
to release books ...
royal fans and foes
air-quote at each other
royal squabbles
over the "tell-all" story
by Harry and Meghan --
the clicking of cameras
becomes loud and louder
FYI: Deadline, September 25: Royal Authors Queue Up To Release Books, Promising To Reveal Truth Of Conflict Between Prince Harry, Meghan Markle And Buckingham Palace and Bloomberg, September 24: Reality Is Coming for Britain’s Royals: Their luxurious remove from ordinary Britons won’t play well with an increasingly stressed public.
