On Her Silver Jubilee

verse 1 I remember, I remember when my world was hardly grown And the daughter of a dead dull king ascended to the throne And though I was just a lad at school I saw it all with scorn The solemn, sacred emptiness, the monumental yawn And the slime exuding daily from the sycophantic slugs And the coronation ashtrays and the coronation mugs And the rows of urban (?) mummies with their maggot-eaten brains All the swarms of bloated blowflies the majestic turd sustains Droves of decorated duchesses like newly-painted slums Kneeling flunkeys, praying monkeys, loyal holes for royal crumbs And the well-heeled sharks discreetly selling tickets for the show Park lane balconies with champagne at a thousand quid a throw “Come and cheer the golden fairy queen, forget your daily cares, For she radiates a glory that a grateful nation shares” And the pageantry, the panoply, the sanctified decay But I knew the hour was coming that would sweep it all away Now time has me in a corner, and I’m moth-eared (?) from the fray But Her Majesty is reigning still today Chorus With a glass cage around her and an absence in her eyes And though regiments around her they can’t take her by surprise She’s as poised as a picture, she’s a sight for all to see With a glass cage around her on her Silver Jubilee With a glass cage around her she feels free verse 2 I remember 1956, division East and West British paratroops in Suez, Russian tanks in Budapest And the peaceful marchers singing for the dream that must come true Of a world free from the nightmare we’ve since grown accustomed to And the Cuban missile crisis with the rumors flying round While the Queen was in her secret bomb-proof palace underground And the violence exploding when anger made a stand For a peasant people burning in a torn and tortured land And the monarch walked her corgis behind the palace wall Never once betraying what she felt or if she felt at all While her husband shout his mouth off like a walking blunderbuss She gave birth to royal children with a minimum of fuss Maintained her wax-worked dignity as she trot the royal dance Fulfilled her royal functions in a kind of royal trance Balmoral, Ascot, Sandringham, the ship-launching routine Palace banquets, garden parties, ever-smiling and serene Unique symbol, model woman, never seeing, always seen So we watched her as she played at being queen Chorus With a glass cage around her and an absence in her eyes And though regiments around her they can’t take her by surprise She’s as poised as a picture, she’s a sight for all to see With a glass cage around her on her Silver Jubilee With a glass cage around her she feels free verse 3 She seems so commonplace a woman in her fuddy-duddy hats But she doesn’t stand in bus queues or live in high-rise flats She doesn’t ride the rush hour or cycle down the Strand And she doesn’t play maracas in the Ivy Benson band And she doesn’t shop for bargains, she’s never on the dole And if she does the football pool, she doesn’t tell a soul And she doesn’t need to bother with the inland revenue Though she’s royally rewarded for the things she doesn’t do With palaces and properties and to keep her in good cheer Her working wage of one point seven million pounds a year Her royal plane, her royal train, a costly royal yacht And lucrative investments in only God knows what Oh, the magic of the monarchy, the mystery sublime Growing gracefully and effortlessly richer all the time She’s the rock of hope and glory in the quicksand of despair For although the pound may tumble, although panic fills the air Although government may crumble, and the cupboards nearly bare Though the stairs begin to rattle, and the rats begin to stare She enfolds in mystic unity her subjects everywhere And we know we’re safe from harm while nanny’s there Chorus With a glass cage around her and an absence in her eyes And though regiments around her they can’t take her by surprise She’s as poised as a picture, she’s a sight for all to see With a glass cage around her on her Silver Jubilee With a glass cage around her she feels free