Divine right of privilege,
scion of this dynast-sceptred isle
totters solo in black cerements
as the inebriate Cabinet carouses.
Britannia’s barge judders
from inner-Armada sabotage.
Sweet Thames swill softly
until the fadeout of this adage.
To stoop to such turpitude,
annus horribilis comparable to
the one thirty years gone, when
Windsor’s tenements sputtered,
family hamstrung with divorcees.
Staunchly stoic who foresuffers
peccadilloes of her offspring;
through sheer rectitude, a stage-
manager’s bloody-mindedness keeps
this hollow masque in repertory.
Mark Wilson
Painting Oskar Kokoschka
Mark Wilson has published four poetry collections: Quartet For the End of Time (Editions du Zaporogue, 2011), Passio (Editions du Zaporogue, 2013), The Angel of History (Leaky Boot Press, 2013) and Illuminations (Leaky Boot Press, 2016). He is the author of a verse-drama, One Eucalyptus Seed, about the arrest and incarceration of Ezra Pound after World War Two, as well as a tragi-comedy, Arden. His poems and articles have appeared in: The Black Herald, The Shop, 3:AM Magazine, International Times, The Fiend, Epignosis Quarterly, Dodging the Rain, The Ekphrastic Review, Rasputin and Le Zaporogue.