In The Picture Gallery Poem by Geoff Skellon

'And this is Queen Victoria' said the guide
'As you can see she's not amused'.
He laughed and moved on.
A gawp of tourists trailed behind.
One cackled with him, loud in flowered shorts
and sweat shirt saying 'Texas is the best'.
A camera flashed. 'No pictures please it's not allowed'.
A silence filled the room when they were gone.

I stayed a minute longer, looking for some signs of happiness beneath the baggy jowls, the painted lines,
But finding none, just many years of widowhood and life alone.
Then footsteps came behind me,
I heard a child's voice say, 'Where's her throne? '.