Snapshots of Elizabeth and Margaret in Chesterfields and Mary Janes
(after tea they’ll be caught in jodhpurs astride their ponies).
As Mother and Father are busy visiting the colonies,
Watched over and kept in line by “Nanny” their nurse—
“Save the Queen!”
Betrothed to Mountbattan, later Duke of Edinburgh, a cousin far removed.
She, short and comely, peering up at Philip’s spruce uniformed figure:
Tall, erect, and handsome, glancing aside with a roving eye (or worse)—
“Save the Queen!”
Just turned 27 at her coronation—a decade of poise and polish at public
receptions, the launching of aircraft, under her crown—
By her command televised to the entire whole world,
Her titles as long as the resplendent red carpet we watch her traverse—
“Save the Queen!”
Mother-in-Law to Britain’s sweetheart, Diana, so fetching, so photogenic.
They don’t show well appearing side by side: the Queen in rose frock and matching hat
Lady Di, coy in designer ensemble that does not include a frumpy purse—“Save the Queen!”
A family portrait: Anne, the Princess Royal, married well and behaving as one ought.
But Charles still craving his Camilla, Andrew on and off with Fergie,
Edward causing tumult in the tabloids, now resigned the Royal Marines. She reads them book and verse—“Save the Queen!”
Diana and Didi killed in Paris crash make headlines ‘round the globe,
Innuendos of royal plots, the Queen accused of coldness, reporters miffed when her holiday in Scotland is not cut short.
She’d dotted every “i”, watched her p’s and q’s, thought Liz, why this family curse? “Save the Queen!”
To the Regent, with her 80th and The Silver Jubilee now past, the Guardian and BBC query: “Who will succeed you and when?”
To herself: “We are the Lady of the Garter. We have dedicated our entire life to the Service of the Commonwealth. Is there another who could perform as well?” Her replies aloud are dutifully tight and terse—
“Save the Queen!”
Judy Garrison, 2006 (a ghuzal written for a Writers in the Mountain poetry class held in Andes)