by Lee Patton
I keep thinking of that grandma
in the Royal Arms projects, in D.C.--
who, chosen to receive the Queen
of England, laughed a welcome
and yanked Elizabeth Windsor into a hug,
so that the Queen, much flustered,
had her Chief of Protocol kindly insist that
the Royal Person must not be
touched, most surely not by commoners.
The grandma had another laugh at
that—dry British wit—and grasped again,
enfolding Her Highness in her
plump black arms until Royal bodyguards
restrained Grandma with gentle
force. Chastened, she realized that she
and Elizabeth were the same age,
and came to pity her peer for all those hug-
less decades, not to mention
the spiteful in-laws, the pointless wars,
the worrisome children, wild
and/or daunted, and offered Elizabeth
a stay in her cramped quarters—
amidst the framed school pictures and fridge
drawings, and Elizabeth nodded,
and duly noted her host’s lovely grandchildren
and apartment, so tiny and clean,
whilst Americans everywhere came to realize
that we, too, possessed a queen.
Among several quarterlies that have published Lee Patton’s work: The Threepenny Review, The Massachusetts Review, The California Quarterly, and Hawaii-Pacific Review. Lee’s second novel, Love and Genetic Weaponry: The Beginner’s Guide, is forthcoming from Alyson Books in May 2009.
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