Empress
You look like an impatient lioness on the IKEA folding bed
momentarily unsettled as the flat surface becomes a right angle
a sudden positional coup d'etat which you handle
with stoicism and clenched claws
You soften the newly shaped ground beneath you
and with narrowed eyes
re-conquer your domain
ruler of all your marble-green eyes survey
Even when pleading for an open door or tin
you do it with a sense of entitlement
An impatient empress
I read that Haile Selassie had someone in his court whose only job
was to carry around a collection of cushions to be placed under him
wherever in the world he sat
to elevate him sufficiently
Another tiny despot revered
—- - -
Straylight Magazine