BY JAN HAAG
PALIMPSEST II
DIANA
11-22-97
They say she
played and lost, O, Devayani, The Princess of Wales, The Queen of
Hearts.
It's
impossible to imagine a funeral more grand, more
touching, more imperial, more
difficult
than her's for the Royal
Family. Treating her like low life on the escutcheon,
enough
was
known to know that what the princess said in public was but half of
the
practicing
to speak out, to say she was human, they were human,
they were, indeed,
what
they were -- human tampons in private,
inscrutable figureheads
you
wouldn't want to know either in public
or private, with rank to
preach,
and lineage to censure, until the
Princess of Hearts said,
let
me alone, I will not live the lies you
promulgate. I,
alone
if I must, will tell the truth. Promptly she
began
preaching
the mean, sordid, world-weary details of her --
what
was construed as a fairy tale life --
anyone,
you
especially, would envy. Yes, her
practice
--
bullheaded, individualistic, charming -- of telling her truth, won
her a sudden coronation at thirty-six.
O Devayani,
gambling, she
won by death, shattering protocols, idolized. Dying young she'll live
forever. To
take
away the shroud of pretense won her millions of
hearts. She asked us straightforwardly to take
a look at
the
Prince. She asked him publicly to be what he seemed. She asked love to
mean something to a "noble"-
man.
Copyright © 2000 Jan Haag
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Jan Haag may be reached via e-mail: jhaag@u.washington.edu
Feeding Frenzy
Gifts
India
Lung-gom-pas
Nothing
BY JAN HAAG