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      May 14, 2023Technicolor Coronation DayMarc Alan Di Martino

      It’s Technicolor Coronation Day.
      Our phones and television screens are lit.
      All skeletons are neatly tucked away.
       
      Scepter-in-hand, the king makes his entrée,
      an old man no one likes, a bore and twit:
      it’s Technicolor Coronation Day.
       
      I’m sitting this one out. I’d rather, say,
      read a good book or pick a nasty zit.
      All skeletons lie neatly tucked away
       
      in closets where they frolic, bump and sway.
      Refresh your feeds, there’s no mistaking it—
      it’s Technicolor Coronation Day.
       
      And now it’s time for everyone to pray
      in grave solemnity. Ignore the pit
      of skeletons so neatly tucked away.
       
      The King will sit above the noisome fray,
      His Majesty a target for their wit.
      It’s Technicolor Coronation Day
      all skeletons mute, neatly tucked away.

      from Poets Respond

      Marc Alan Di Martino

      “I didn’t watch the coronation ceremony, though my Twitter feed was full of commentary on the lavish and anachronistic event. I was struck by one person’s comment that all of this looked better in black-and-white, this of course being the first such ceremony to take place in the age of the internet and universally available color broadcasting. The first line came to me and, having wanted to write another villanelle for some time, the rest fell into place fairly naturally. A profile of Charles published in the New Yorker a few years ago makes reference to him as a ‘twit.’”

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