On the Death of a Queen - Sept 9 2022

 

On the Death of a Queen

Sept 9 2022

I am writing this

on the death of a Queen.

I imagine future generations

looking back on our public grief

with perplexed amusement

and wondering why.

Were we not free, sovereign

self-governing?

And I ask

how they could not realize

that the politicians

and mediocrities

and venal hangers-on

are not to be trusted

as head of state?

She was above all that,

a paragon of duty

and beacon of constancy

who performed her role with grace

through war and peace

and social change,

yet maintained the mystery

that lies the heart of the crown.

Who kept the wife and mother

and petit bourgeois

and keeper of dogs,

the lover of horses

and woman of mortal flesh

who is as flawed as the rest of us

submerged,

separate from the symbol

she faithfully embodied.

The allure of mystery,

a lesson modern celebrities

have failed to learn.

There are pageantry and trumpets

flowers and tears,

an official proclamation

on letter-size paper

posted on the palace gate.

Another ancient ritual

to reassure

and anchor us.

She sat on the throne

for 70 years

and no one knew any other.

Yet despite archaic monarchy

her royal subjects loved her.

The Queen is dead,

long live the King;

the seamless transition

from monarch to heir.

Whom we are sizing up,

testing critically against

the bar she set.

Will we consent to his rule?

Will we let him serve?

Or become a Republic,

where unchecked power

resides in the crab

who scrambles up the side

of the seething bucket

and scuttles out the top?

That foul bucket,

where spineless animals

snap at each other

and pile on;

cannibalizing the weak,

grovelling before the strong.

I'm an unrepentant monarchist. Queen Elizabeth, of course – with her steady and dignified execution of the role – made this easy. The timing of her death, in a world beset by momentous change and threat, is unfortunate. One more unsettling thing. But this is the role of monarchy: continuity, stability, the comforting familiarity of ritual. The Queen is dead; long live the King.

Aside from the person, there is the principle. Because the most important reason for a constitutional monarchy is the separation of head of government and head of state: need I say more than ”Donald Trump”?