Encounter.(Poem)

 
ENCOUNTER 
Kensington Gardens, 1937 
 
   "What a beautiful child!" 
   cried the lady' in the fur coat, 
   as she peered into my brother's pram, 
   where he lay plump and rosy. 
   My mother, Australian and shy, 
   doubtless said something polite 
   and steered the pram towards the Pond. 
   But not before a woman 
   tapped her on the shoulder. 
   "That was the Queen of Spain," she said, 
   "Grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. 
   What a thing to tell your little boy 
   when he's old enough to understand." 
 
   This short acquaintance with royalty 
   entered our family history 
   and so did poor Queen Ena, 
   the exiled English princess 
   caught up in all that foreign mess 
   of anarchy and revolution. 
 
   For years we took an ...