Queen Victoria Poem by Gert Strydom

When little Victoria played
at the lake in Claremont Gardens
as a child long before she became queen,
did she capture a large swallowtail butterfly
from a reed and then pulled off its golden
and black veined wings
or was she then, innocent of such a thing?

When little Victoria played
at the lake in Claremont Gardens
as a child long before she became queen,
did she trample the flowers
pulling the white and yellow water lilies
out of the lake
or was she then, innocent of such a thing?

When little Victoria became a powerful queen
did her government go to war
against the Orange Free State
and Transvaal Republics?

Did her soldiers force women and children
into concentration camps
where twenty thousand died?

Did her soldiers kill three thousand
Christian farmers after demolishing their farms?

And did her government loose
twenty eight thousand soldiers
of its own?

Or was she then, innocent of such things?

[Note: My own great grandmother died in a British concentration camp and my great grandfather was sent by the British to St. Helena as a prisoner of war and as a result of this, my grandfather(Gert Strydom) grew up in a orphanage.]