Borrowed Rainbows
For Niall McDevitt (above), poet and republican
22/02/1967 – 29/09/2022
The day Elizabeth Windsor passed
A double rainbow was visible
Arcing over Buckingham Palace—
Supposedly a benevolent omen
Of transformation, fresh beginnings,
Good things—Royal mourners
Gasped at such celestial symbolism
For the late Queen’s heavenly ascent
To flights of angels singing her to her rest,
& down here, a smooth succession
Of a new King & a third Carolean
Age—but it all depends on points
Of view, personal hopes & opinions,
As to how the double rainbow
Could be symbolic: to a growing
Number it symbolised more the budding
Promise of monarchy’s enduring end
& the sleepy hope of a ripe republic…
But now is not the time to speak
Of republics—to do so is tantamount
To traitorousness, sedition, & other
Unspeakable transgressions; one
Republican protestor is one too
Many—a placard reading ABOLISH
THE MONARCHY elicits arrest;
Another protestor cornered & warned
By bobbies not to write anything on
His blank placard, hardly a placard,
Just one square empty space of card
But in propinquity to Buckingham
Palace, enough proof of treason in
The book of Babian of the Yard,
Sufficient grounds for a bruising,
Swift prosecution & sentencing—so
Christopher Robin goes down with Alice…
A double rainbow bruising over
Buckingham Palace minutes before
Elizabeth Windsor passed
Was miraculously symbolic
& enough to mint a new taboo…
May flights of angels sing her to…
Rainbow O Rainborowe O borrowed
Rainbows O borrowed tomorrows O
Now is not the time to be a republican,
Now is not the time to speak of a republic,
Now is only time to join the queue…
Tobacco wrappers
Sceptre
spectre
& spectacle
tradition’s anointed mystique
none can fight its
spiritual fists
divine right’s
unquestioning monarchists
could we replace it
with whispered republics
conspiracies
in tobacco wrappers
pot-&-pan-
handed clappers
cap-doffing
forelock-tugging
bowing & scraping
endlessly queueing
to bow & curtsy
& cross themselves
at the catafalque
as if at a holy
reliquary
or paying respects
to a departed saint
divine being
not citizens
but subjects
subservient
deferential
so we defer
& defer
& defer
the future
put the past first
history on catch up
perpetual repeat
time is ripe
for pipes & plots
conspiracies
& micro-republics
discreetly sealed
in tobacco wrappers
