Poetry cave – Queen

Queen – Robin Goodfellow’s poem was inspired by her time volunteering with strong women with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

I wrote this poem when I was volunteering at a Memory Care Residence. I met an old woman who had her Ph.D in Biology, another woman who served in the military, and yet another who served as the first female stock broker in New York. I met all these wonderful, strong women who were now suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, and I was inspired.

I decided to write this poem for them, because they demolished the societal standards back in the day, and I hope that other women will continue to destroy those standards.

Queen

A Queen is not

magnificent

sanctified

dignified

but she can certainly act like it, with

every subject at her command, though her

kind heart would never allow her to

use them. She smiles then silently, in a

field of mountain roses, her fragile

fingers weaving daisy chains.

A Queen should not be

strong

wise

intelligent

though she never was one to heed

anyone’s words. No, not at all; she can

be anything she would like to be, and

the people will all love her for it. They

all will, because laughter resounds

throughout the kingdoms.

A Queen never was

stubborn

unbreakable

persistent

yet she stubbornly still clings to

life, refusing to allow herself to die

in vain. All the secrets she carries, all

the tears she’s cried; in the end they

are but a simple truth that she is now

here, now breathing.

A Queen is not

A Queen should not be

A Queen never was

And yet,

here she is,

Her Majesty

Her Highness

Sitting on the throne

With all of society

Beneath her.