my grandma looked like the queen

my grandma looked like the queen
everyone said so
her high slim cheek bones
thick dark hair stiled up
in soft curls
friendly eyes and
delicate thin lips
my grandma looked like the queen

my grandma looked like the queen
when Elizabeth visited Winnipeg
with her father King George
my grandmother went to see
she kept all of the clippings
from the local newspaper
in a special scrap book
and would bring it out
for me to see that
my grandma looked like the queen

my grandma looked like the queen
she had many young beaus
come across her door
she kept all the letters
and cards of admiration
but she chose my grandfather
as he shipped off to war
to defend England
and stayed by his side
when he returned half alive
a pilar of dignity and grace
my grandma looked like the queen

my grandma looked like the queen
her family sent away to Europe to buy
the white silk for her wedding dress
and paid off the catholic priest
to marry a Polish girl to a Ukranian boy
it is said that people disapproved
of Prince Phillip too due to his
lesser station in life
she kept clippings of their wedding too
my grandma looked like the queen

my grandma looked like the queen
she had two daughters and a sprawling garden
the queen had three sons and estate grounds
they both had their troubles in life
my grandfather yelled, drank, belittled
my aunt raged, got pregnant, became absent
my mother demured, cleaned, got out
my grandmother cried, gardened, prayed
the queen lived through war
saw her children go off, get married
wept behind doors for the tragedies
kept strong in the face of adversity
my grandma looked like the queen

my grandma looked like the queen
but arthritis took her body
her hands crippled and mishapen from
years of working the oven and the dirt
feet gnarled and deformed from years
of wearing the latest pointed high heels
back and spirit bent with time
from carrying the burdens of life
and her heart once strong and stable
kept beating with pills and pleading
my grandma looked like the queen

my grandma looked like the queen
sleeping beauty in her bed
at the end of the aisle
as the procession played
catholic hymns for the dead
surrounded by mounds of flowers
while the queen grew old
in her castles with her corgies
and carried on her reign
hair greying, walk slowing
never knowing that she
the queen looks like my grandma