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A Very Small Kingdom<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once there was a queen<\/p>\n who reigned alone over a very small<\/p>\n kingdom,<\/p>\n three children, a sack of potatoes waiting to be<\/p>\n peeled,<\/p>\n a sack of smelly garbage waiting to be carried<\/p>\n out,<\/p>\n a broom, useless for sweeping and even more<\/p>\n useless for flying around on (yes, she<\/p>\n had tried)<\/p>\n and the aforementioned three children<\/p>\n waiting,<\/p>\n waiting apprehensively,<\/p>\n to see what this dotty queen would come up<\/p>\n with next,<\/p>\n and also for their supper.<\/p>\n She had also a nervous tic, a chipped teacup,<\/p>\n and some small change (never enough).<\/p>\n And the King? Where was the King?<\/em> you ask.<\/p>\n Also the queen would love<\/p>\n to know.<\/p>\n Perhaps he was off fighting a war. Kings love<\/p>\n to fight wars.<\/p>\n They love it so much that if there are no wars<\/p>\n in the immediate vicinity,<\/p>\n they’ll ride off looking for one.<\/p>\n Or perhaps there was<\/em> no king. Perhaps the so-<\/p>\n called King was only a Frog prince who<\/p>\n metamorphosed back to his true self<\/p>\n after climbing out of the dank<\/p>\n swamp where he’d croaked smutty<\/p>\n drinking songs with his frog buddies<\/p>\n before climbing into the pale queen’s bed<\/p>\n where the climate was far too cold and<\/p>\n far too dry for normal Frogs or Kings.<\/p>\n No wonder he went off looking for a war.<\/p>\n Whatever.<\/p>\n He was gone and the queen reigned alone.<\/p>\n It was a lonely life, but what to do?<\/p>\n Oh, much to do. A queen’s work is never<\/p>\n done.<\/p>\n First she had to go to the office and make<\/p>\n money to buy food.<\/p>\n Then she had to go to the supermarket and be<\/p>\n insulted by rude check-out girls when<\/p>\n she dug in her handbag for small change<\/p>\n (never enough).<\/p>\n Then she had to wait at the bus stop weighed<\/p>\n down with heavy bags.<\/p>\n Then she had to stand during a forty minute<\/p>\n ride because who would give up their seat<\/p>\n to a baleful-looking queen with a nervous tic.<\/p>\n Then she had to walk five blocks through rain,<\/p>\n snow, sleet, you name it, like she was a<\/p>\n freaking postman instead a queen,<\/p>\n but now we are getting off the<\/p>\n track.<\/p>\n Recap.<\/p>\n First she had to make the money.<\/p>\n Second she had to buy the food,<\/p>\n Third she had to carry it home<\/p>\n (tons and tons over the years).<\/p>\n Then she had to scrape it, slice it, dice it, fry it,<\/p>\n boil it, broil it, salt it, pepper it, mash it, splash it,<\/p>\n put it on the table,<\/p>\n and issue her queenly commands:<\/p>\n Eat your supper.<\/em><\/p>\n Sit still.<\/em><\/p>\n Sit with your chair on all four legs.<\/em><\/p>\n Don’t talk with food in your mouth.<\/em><\/p>\n Be glad you have food on your plate.<\/em><\/p>\n Eat your supper.<\/em><\/p>\n The moral of this story is:<\/p>\n Even in very small kingdoms, there is<\/p>\n always much to do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Janice D. Soderling<\/strong> is a previous contributor to Ink, Sweat & Tears<\/em>. Her poetry has appeared in many UK magazines including Magma Poetry, Orbis, Anon, Acumen, Horizon Review, Antiphon, New Walk, Other Poetry, Sein und Werden<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Very Small Kingdom Once there was a queen who reigned alone over a very small kingdom, three children, a sack of potatoes waiting to be peeled, a sack of smelly garbage waiting to be carried out, a broom, useless for sweeping and even more useless for flying around on (yes, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7525"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7527,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525\/revisions\/7527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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