Toggle Menu

Royal Pardon

Jessica Q. Stark

June 12, 2024

Bluesky

Let me be untranslated matter in this

age of self-declared kings and salesmen—

this court our royal stage. How quiet the

white-hot nimble name, each upload

Current Issue

View our current issue

Subscribe today and Save up to $129.

an upset to mortality’s unimpressed

bibliography. It feels like dead sound

the way you sculpt a lifetime through

good timing, through nobody’s hot

breath. Here lies Antoinette and

a facsimile report on the dearth of

formula water milk toilet paper bread

Your support makes stories like this possible

From Minneapolis to Venezuela, from Gaza to Washington, DC, this is a time of staggering chaos, cruelty, and violence. 

Unlike other publications that parrot the views of authoritarians, billionaires, and corporations, The Nation publishes stories that hold the powerful to account and center the communities too often denied a voice in the national media—stories like the one you’ve just read.

Each day, our journalism cuts through lies and distortions, contextualizes the developments reshaping politics around the globe, and advances progressive ideas that oxygenate our movements and instigate change in the halls of power. 

This independent journalism is only possible with the support of our readers. If you want to see more urgent coverage like this, please donate to The Nation today.

all gone during a juicy-sesh of self-care

slash thoughts and prayers. Headless,

we got carried away.

 

We had a lot to do.

 

While immigrants walked for miles and

immigrants bled hurricanes into boats

and immigrants without power turned

Support our work with a digital subscription.

Get unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.

into reams of discount paper at Target’s

Big Blowout Labor Day Sale. Remember

worst nightmares as uncollected social

security? Me neither. I’m trying to save

up enough vacation time to sleep forever,

but a knife’s at my back most days, at the

edge of mother’s maiden name. And

five nights out of seven, my neighbor’s

outside breaking down Amazon boxes

while the cat pleads the fifth,

sleeps ‘til noon.

 

Surely, you know, sire, I jest. I’m just a

simpleton, a citizen, a sure-bet sidepiece.

 

All I want is your decent-blooded love.

Jessica Q. StarkJessica Q. Stark is a poet, educator, and editor that lives in Jacksonville, Florida.


Latest from the nation