Questions for a Queen

by Rachel Fox

What do you think of your children’s divorces?

Do you close your eyes and dream about horses?

Is it tiring to always be part of a show?

Do you care when a poet to honours says ‘no’?

Do you feel like us, do you cry wet tears?

Have you changed, as we all have, over the years?

Has it been real life, has it felt real to you?

To us it seems made-up, a story, untrue

Parades and carriages and armies of stuff

We make our own breakfasts, we run our own baths

Do you like it, would you choose it, would you be queen again?

Or would you rather live quietly, just one of them?

Less money, fewer banquets, not a sniff of a crown

Just headscarves or, better still, hair let right down