British History is Black: The Queen Turned Black
Below is the last of the four new poems by Jenny Mitchell to mark Black History Month. For some background to the poem, see here and here.
The Queen Turned Black
by Jenny Mitchell
When granny dies, her skin transforms,
not limb by limb but all at once –
dark brown becomes red, white and blue.
Her hair has lost its kink, becomes a stately crown.
I’m not surprised. She loved Great Britain
even when in ’56 a turd slipped
through her letterbox. Neighbours called police
in ’58 to say her bible class – loud prayers
to a blond-haired Jesus – sent them mad.
More than once in ’63, the local press reported
that her house became a den of vice – Black
Madame Must Be Stopped!
She used the settlements to build a large extension.
Most recently, the man next door, caped
in a Union Jack, ordered her to go back home
with the other immigrants. Home was called
the Mother Country where the Queen
once welcomed her, waving from a balcony.
Now ever since she died, the Queen has been
transformed, her skin turned black,
her hair a tall, soft afro. She lies
next to my granny in a special plot, white
roses planted close. Are they holding
hands, having shared so much?
Jenny Mitchell
Jenny Mitchell is currently the Inaugural Poet-in-the-Community at the British Library, working with the Engagement Team. She’s recently been nominated as Best of the Net 2025, won the Ink, Sweat and Tears May 2024 Poetry Competition, the Shooter Poetry Competition in 2023, the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize in 2022 and the Poetry Book Awards in 2021 for her second collection, Map of a Plantation. The prize-winning debut collection, Her Lost Language, is one of 44 Poetry Books for 2019 (Poetry Wales), and her latest collection, Resurrection of a Black Man, contains three prize-winning poems and is featured on the US podcast Poetry Unbound. She was Poet-in-Residence at Sussex University in 2024, and Artist in Association at Birkbeck from 2021-22.