Take These Depositions

View PDF

“I am Richard II. 
            know ye not that?” 
                        —Queen Elizabeth 

“The king is not himself …” 
            —Richard II (2.1.241) 

I. 

Let’s talk of griefs, 
of wombs, 
of epithets. 

Why is “Mother” 
an epithet? 

II. 

When my son cries tonight, I 
say: Let Mama love you. 
When he hungers, I 
say: Let Mama feed you. 

Mama does so much for him, 
I so little.

III. 

My son. 
Is he the deposition 
or the abdication 
of my I? 

Shall I 
no longer be 
myself? 
Ay no no ay … 

IV. 

Abdication and abduction
are consonant— 
the same in bone, 
they differ only in breath. 

V. 

Not all the water in a woman
can wash the balm 
from off a self-appointed queen.