Tuesday, May 08, 2018

PRINCE CHARLES (POEM TWO)

PRINCE CHARLES (POEM TWO)
A BRIDGE TOO FAR!
A Government proposal to rename the Second Severn Crossing,
the 'Prince of Wales Bridge' (to commemorate his 70th birthday)
has led to some angry protests and a petition against it in Wales.

Prince Charles, the dilettante blimp,
And Britain’s would-be 'King of Hearts'; (1)
Is looked on as a Saesneg wimp, (2)
In certain rebel Cymric parts.
The Bridge that spans the Marches there, (3)
To Gloucestershire’s virescent vales;
May be named after our sad heir,
The tearful, fearful, Prince of 'Wails'. (4)

The canny Celts won’t play the game,
And in objecting, just a smidge;
Have said no way they want his name,
Upon the Second Severn Bridge.
Except in their graffiti ploy, 
Where they can have their waspish say;
About the English mummy's boy,
Who's been foist on them in this way.

Some views about this case are mixed,
But many Welsh folk show alarm;
And urge his nameplate be affixed,
To some old English sewage farm.
The point about the Bridge is this,
For royalists who are aghast;
Why rename this new edifice,
With an old one who's from the past?!

(1) Charles knows he's not as popular as 'Queen of Hearts',
Princess Di was. (see press stories , 20th anniversary of her death)

(2) 'Saesneg'-Welsh Brythonic Gaelic for an English person.
Related to Scottish Goidelic Gaelic 'Sassenach'. (Saxon)

(3) The Welsh Marches were a hinterland between Wales and England
originally held by Norman Lords who were semi-independent of the Crown.

(4) An unauthorised biography of Prince Charles reveals him
to be unhappy with his lot in life. 'Rebel Prince' by Tom Bower.

© Richard Layton

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