The Queen Mother

Your subjects walk a wire /

jesters in a mad queen's court /

each new round fired /

hot on the heels of /

its precursor's report.

From pristine to unclean /

From Nazarene to Philistine /

A single slight, crystalized, or chimeric /

adequate cause to defrock a cleric.

As for me /

he of lesser nobility /

three's a crowd, two's company.

Burnt offerings buy comity /

Tributes appraised by MSRP /

by acquisitional sweat equity;

but, respites are always temporary.

Summoned to the court /

for a weather report /

breaking news of a new cat 4 /

fulminating just offshore.

Meet Typhoon Mater's demands /

lest she lay siege to peace-loving lands /

now, fetch the sacrificial lamb /

and have him slaughtered by his own hands.

Sans translator, sans translation key /

I fall back on familiarity /

decades of deciphering your sophistry:

You say I've "changed" /

that I used to know my place /

I no longer go along to get along /

gaslit by Your Grace.

Crippling a candescent mind /

a kind of Munchausen by proxy /

To so ingrain a psyops campaign /

ensures an end product short on moxie.

Never spurned my station /

as the manboy king's plus one;

content to carry water for /

the once-and-future prodigal son.