Overshadowed

Obligittos were made for his father and his sisters.

Vain were his father's attempts at a dynasty of kings.

Everything he wanted in Edward was found in Elizabeth.

Reduced to fleeting memories of Tudor summers of sickness.

Seen as an orphaned tyrant and a victim of circumstance

His power spoken through others, but never himself.

A boy crowned, but denied a voice and love, an uncle's pawn.

Drowned out as his lungs crushed by legacies too large to escape,

Outliving his reign only in shadows as his body wasted away.

Welcomed death with open arms like a long-lost friend.

Even in a poem written for a boy who had died young

Destined to be overshadowed by everything around him.