Mere Pageantry Is Dead, She Said

[to Katharine Hepburn, from an unscripted scene]

mere pageantry is dead, she said,

tolling the purple and the gold removed-

removing her crown;

the jewels in the tower,

far from the town

I live in now.

I live-.

between ceremonies.

let the braided skies come down

as if made of a final curtain.

I will bow down on the ground

for those I cannot mourn.

mary angela douglas 12 june 2014