Ashcan Royalty


Ashcan Royalty

The Old Duchess, 1905 George Luks (American, 1866–1933)
The Old Duchess, 1905
George Luks (American, 1866–1933)

I am Beauty shrouded in ugliness. A Harridan. Unkempt. Slovenly. Hair uncombed. I wander city streets like a Mumbling Chin Don. Buried in layers of over-sized clothing I am the Rag Pickers Son. Ambiguous. Gender-Neutral. Amorphous.

I pity the overly made up party girls snapping teeth and shredding claws fighting for yet fending off not so unwanted advances.

Androgyny is my protective cloak whilst favored neighbors enjoy early morn headboard banging sessions.

In life I am the Old Hag formerly a Duchess now a shapeless depraved harpy who wears multiple layers of petticoats, dresses and sweaters.

She of lost rank who has become maleficence incarnate. A Crone who struts like a Grande Dame puffing and swelling, whose very essence is an evil elixir that floods the streets and overflows the already befouled sewers.

Madame Nina Simone


Some days you think you can fly until you see the ground coming up at your quickly. I mean really fast. Then Bam! Reality hits. Broken bones form a new being. I’m a Vagabond. A Gypsy. The sands of time shift under my feet but my name will live on forever.

Spider web moon lit night
Spider web moon lit night

I am the Queen. The Empress. The Jewel in the Crown. The Duchess takes the hurt, pain, sorrow, fear, abandonment, betrayal and neglect puts them into their separate boxes, pushes those boxes into various compartments and stores them away until such time as those emotions are needed then she bids Pandora release the demi-gods to the winds of time.

Royalty never asks the approval of minions. Shes does what she wants. When she wants. Never looking back. Thus the writer & artists take wings soaring above pettiness, jealousy & emotional slaveholders. Middle-fingers up……………………………