The Queen and Her Tea Leaves by Charlie Bowden

When she’s alone she touches herself and thinks of tea leaves.

Not at the same time. The leaves are calm after the storm.

She dreams of their crisp crinkled edges in a cheap tin,

fingers running over their impossibly thin edges,

brown and green paper, something to control,

consume.

She drinks the paper, diluted, and imagines

her husband’s dashing face on cash notes, sixty years prior.

Can’t afford to update them, that’s what he says.

The prickles on her arm when he swims into position are priceless enough.

She takes pride of place often enough but years for the palace,

for beds, for papyrus.

Their wrinkled hands can hardly make the lights work anymore

but she makes light work of hibiscus plants

without him or his bulging heart.

She wakes to hot steam, showers, shopping sprees.

When she’s away from her kingdom, she thinks of

her silky tea leaves.

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"‘The Queen and Her Tea Leaves’ was based on the intense media presence the royal family have had in the UK in the past year and exploring the sought-after private life of a fictional queen consort. I was originally concerned that the title just referring to "The Queen" would lead to confusion about the poem's content but those who I showed it to seemed enthusiastic so I decided to leave the title as is.”

Charlie Bowden (he/him) is a student from Hampshire, England, who discovered a love for writing poetry in lockdown after spending years studying it at school. His work has been included in collections by Young Writers and the Stratford Literary Festival among others and he won the 2021 Forward/emagazine Creative Critics Competition. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @charliebpoetry for more.