It was my first look at the world
on a small screen: her coronation
in my aunt’s living room. It’s amazing
how close I came that day to loving
what I saw without question. A small boy
staring at a queen. Both of us were excited.
Both knew it was crazy how things happen
beyond our power to understand them.
The queen and I, we were enchanted: earth
and all its glories seemed enough. Have pity
on us, we who would have loved to rule
our whole lives without incident. We who
have spent our reigns dissolving empires
into warring nations. It was in black
and white, a tiny screen, but it was godly
how she walked down that long aisle alone,
only her heavy train behind her, only
her failing empire before.
We kings and queens cannot help our accidents
of birth: born to rule, born to lose it all.