Queen Hazel

The royal bath had not been hot

when Hazel dipped her regal toe

beneath the sudsy bubbles,

and had let the palace know

with a shriek that sent

the hunting falcons in a tizzy.

The handmaiden, devastated,

her apologies belated, knelt

with abject genuflection while

Queen Hazel, unmercifully

berated the poor girl and sent

her scurrying to fetch the royal

sponge to cleanse her mistress'

form, while all the time her

future she was worrying.

..................

Wicked Queen Hazel

banged her sceptre on the floor

and the royal guard cringed,

they'd seen this mood before when

things did not go quite the way

she planned, which was not good.

The Royal Jester came forth

trembling, his demeanour one of fear

and immediately began

dissembling when to his highness

he drew near enough to see

the fire in her blazing eyes

and while imagined fate he

could not disguise he performed

upon demand, a simple verse

he had planned, praying she'd

be pleased with his surprise.

'A penny for your thoughts,

my Queen or should one not prevail,

a second to reveal exactly what

they might entail, a sum I feel

adequately spent to nail with

said two pennies your Majesty's

true bent.'

(a little license exercised here)

Queen Hazel tilted forward,

aimed her finger like a gun at the

quivering Jester to terrified

to run away before the Royal Guard

dragged him from the room directly

to the palace bowels and tossed him

in a tomb. 'I desire food!' she screamed,

the handmaiden, in a desperate lunge,

tripped with the pound of

Royal cherries and bounced up

off the sponge inundating Hazel

in a shower of cherry juice, frantically

manufacturing a plausible

excuse while Queen Hazel was

engaging in one of her Royal fits,

screaming to the rafters that

the cherries were the pits!