Poem: Subsequent Kingdom

The hour came

When she no longer knew

Where to stand and so

She sat

In the middle of a ground

Hollowed of movement

And sound.

Wrapped her arms around

The tops of her knees,

Squeezed and held

Herself in a balance

That felt like a trance.

Faded memories danced,

Then turned into smoke,

Lifted up

And away—

Transformed day into

Night,

Where what was bright

Had taken flight.

There was no way

To know for sure

Where her plight would

Take her

Or send her next

But to a dream—

So she slept and found

That nightmares abound,

But dreams are the things

Worth stepping into.

And so

She slept

And she stepped.


She entered—

Her feet soaked in regret,

A substance heavier than she knew.

Underfoot,

Leaves crunching,

Small souls darting,

Dripping mysteries and dew.


She stood in a hidden forest

Where light was shattered

By shadow—

The sun trickling

Down tree trunks

Until devoured by shade.


In this place—

Where light and dark collide—

Life breathed

Without fear of

Being censured

Or scrutinized.


Her hands trembled,

Adding vibration to the breeze

Shaken loose from unseen clouds,

Wrapping around her skin

And seeping past

Petrified courage within.


Location undisclosed—

To she and he and me.

Lost inside—

No fear of being unfound,

No regret of being drowned

Between the monotony there

And this rising cacophony of sound—

Increasing swells surrounding,

Like a riptide racing outward,

Tearing her loose from security,

Crowning her

With confounding obscurity.

A subsequent Queen

Bowed low—

In coronation,

Surrendered to unpredictability,

Relinquished proposals

And control.


Her scepter raised,

Exposing the cavity

Of beating heart and soul,

Warring against

Encroaching enemies

Threatening to bring her low.


She breathed.

She sighed.

She caught the eyes

Of a creature drawing near.

In him—a revelation

She held dear,

Yet sensed she should not go near.

Stuck

Between stimulus

And choice—

As thick as tangled underbrush below,

As wide as these grounds

She did not know—

She stood still.

A stabbing thrill

Entered her side,

Some kind of alive

Breaching the tenderness

Of the space

Where her secrets hide.


She lowered her scepter,

Compelled to disavow

The tenacity of her presence here—

In a place

Perhaps she should fear.

There he stood,

Quite near.

Treading upon this undisclosed ground

Gave air to her footsteps,

And she, like a child,

Laid her focus

At the feet of he

And of mysteries

Surrounding her there—

She worshiped at the altar

Of her long-forgotten

Sense of wonder.


Unexpected places.

Unimagined faces.

Unforeseen encounters

Reminded her that life

Is an unpredictable force—

Impossible to bridle

By will alone.

“Let it be,”

Said she—

With an indignant air

Of possibility,

A heaviness in her lungs

Making it difficult to breathe—

Yet she breathed,

And she sighed,

And she moved into his realm,

Stuck her fingers in,

And pried him open—

Revealing his positives

To her negatives.


A Pandora’s Box

Of magnetism—

Cataclysmic exposure,

Volcanic disclosure—

Blasted through their chests

And up through

The tops of the trees.

A burst of what was unseen

Careened,

Trading winds

With all that was seen—

A hurricane of chemistry,

Unforeseen,

Destroying the routine

Like a machine

Come to life

With a sharpened pulse.

She realized too late

That being crowned

In her dream

Unbound her stream

Of waking consciousness—

Stuck now inside her sleep,

Between worlds,

Stewing in a concoction

Of waking memory

And present dream.


She remembered when

She had a choice—

When she sat

With her arms wrapped

Around her knees,

A breeze of normalcy

Blowing across

Tear-stained cheeks:

“The tears I knew

Were softer

Than these torrents

Where light and dark

Steal what was—

What is—

And twist the present

With what they undo.”


The hour returned.

She no longer knew

Where the path of her then

Met the path of her now.

So she sat with her crown,

Awaiting sundown—

Her sleeping life

Mingling within

Her subsequent kingdom.


© Jill Szoo Wilson, updated 2026