STATE/BANQUET by Carol Ann Duffy How it glitters and shines, The Grand Service, among the rocks and the rubble, laid out on a breezeblock horseshoe table, six crystal glasses per setting. It took eight servants three weeks to polish - silver coated in a thin layer of gold - even the concrete dust in the air seems glamourised and the ruins are decked in the uplifting flags of democracy. To start, fillet of Dover sole filled with salmon mousse, served on a bed of leeks with white wine sauce. Poached Sandringham venison with truffles to follow, then Key Lime Pie, and among the wines, Chateau Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, 1990. Yum-yum. Let the trumpets sound on the bombsite as the great and the good pick their way through, and a famished child peers through a bullet-hole in a wall. Carol Ann Duffy was the UK’s poet laureate between 2009 and 2019. The US president, Donald Trump, and his wife, Melania, arrived in Windsor today to be met by the Prince and Princess...
Adele Cosgrove-Bray is a writer and artist based in Wirral, England. Her writing has been published traditionally in magazines and anthologies, and she has also explored self-publishing.