by Julia Griffin

“Queen Elizabeth Has Been Known to Catch Bats in a Butterfly Net at Balmoral Castle”
—Town and Country

She has been known. You ask, by whom?
Select observers, we assume;
Who has the task of choosing hats
For when HM is catching bats?
A veil might help; not so a plume.

Balmoral’s bats must sense their doom
To see that regal figure loom:
They’ve learned the looks of autocrats;
She has been known.

It isn’t that there isn’t room,
But batting lifts sporadic gloom,
As does the sight of knights in spats
Attending her with tiny vats:
She’s ninety-six, but can she zoom!—
She has been known.