Ode for Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth II (21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022)

The argument from merit

Casts us all in a harsh light,

Elevation arbitrary

Tends to set things right.

A young girl, out of Africa

Came home to wear a crown,

She asked for peoples’ prayers

So she would never let them down.

And while her Empire crumbled

She refused to do the same,

Lack of power her super-power,

‘De-Colonize’ her name.

Her race is run and she will lie

The wrong side of the turf;

As certain as the sunrise – 

Timeless as the Earth.