{"id":14860,"date":"2022-10-10T19:34:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T18:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/rainbow-over-buckingham-palace-and-tobacco-wrappers-two-poems-by-alan-morrison\/"},"modified":"2022-10-10T19:34:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T18:34:32","slug":"rainbow-over-buckingham-palace-and-tobacco-wrappers-two-poems-by-alan-morrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/rainbow-over-buckingham-palace-and-tobacco-wrappers-two-poems-by-alan-morrison\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Borrowed Rainbows’ and ‘Tobacco Wrappers’: two new poems by Alan Morrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Borrowed Rainbows<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For Niall McDevitt<\/a> (above), poet and republican<\/em>
22\/02\/1967 – 29\/09\/2022<\/em><\/p>\n

The day Elizabeth Windsor passed
A double rainbow was visible
Arcing over Buckingham Palace\u2014
Supposedly a benevolent omen
Of transformation, fresh beginnings,
Good things\u2014Royal 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\u2014but 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…<\/p>\n

But now is not the time to speak
Of republics\u2014to do so is tantamount
To traitorousness, sedition, & other
Unspeakable transgressions; one
Republican protestor is one too
Many\u2014a 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\u2014so
Christopher Robin goes down with Alice…<\/em><\/p>\n

A double rainbow bruising over
Buckingham Palace minutes before
Elizabeth Windsor passed
Was miraculously symbolic
& enough to mint a new taboo…<\/p>\n

May flights of angels sing her to…<\/em><\/p>\n

Rainbow O Rainborowe O borrowed
Rainbows O borrowed tomorrows O<\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tobacco wrappers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sceptre
spectre
& spectacle
tradition’s anointed mystique
none can fight its
spiritual fists
divine right’s
unquestioning monarchists<\/p>\n

could we replace it
with whispered republics
conspiracies
in tobacco wrappers<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

not citizens
but subjects
subservient
deferential<\/p>\n

so we defer
& defer
& defer
the future
put the past first
history on catch up
perpetual repeat<\/p>\n

time is ripe
for pipes & plots
conspiracies
& micro-republics
discreetly sealed
in tobacco wrappers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Borrowed Rainbows For Niall McDevitt (above), poet and republican22\/02\/1967 – 29\/09\/2022 The day Elizabeth Windsor passedA double rainbow was visibleArcing over Buckingham Palace\u2014Supposedly a benevolent omenOf transformation,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":372,"featured_media":14858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/372"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}