When little Victoria played <br />at the lake in Claremont Gardens <br />as a child long before she became queen, <br />did she capture a large swallowtail butterfly <br />from a reed and then pulled off its golden <br />and black veined wings <br />or was she then, innocent of such a thing? <br /> <br />When little Victoria played <br />at the lake in Claremont Gardens <br />as a child long before she became queen, <br />did she trample the flowers <br />pulling the white and yellow water lilies <br />out of the lake <br />or was she then, innocent of such a thing? <br /> <br />When little Victoria became a powerful queen <br />did her government go to war <br />against the Orange Free State <br />and Transvaal Republics? <br /> <br />Did her soldiers force women and children <br />into concentration camps <br />where twenty thousand died? <br /> <br />Did her soldiers kill three thousand <br />Christian farmers after demolishing their farms? <br /> <br />And did her government loose <br />twenty eight thousand soldiers <br />of its own? <br /> <br />Or was she then, innocent of such things? <br /> <br />[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.]<br /><br />Gert Strydom<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/queen-victoria/
