Pair Of Charlies

Prince Charles, as he then was, remembers no

Assertion that we’d soon forget his ex.

In contrast, other Charles, Diana’s bro,

Remembers every word that Charles the Rex

Once said (or hissed) and made a claim in print

For Palace aides to scathingly deny,

Contributing to making him a mint,

However things turn out as years roll by

And recollections vary for our Di’s

Right royal pair of Charlies. That same week,

Legitimate concerns about AI’s

Intention to destroy us were ubique …

Eye-rolling by a jaded public might

Suggest not many care which Charlie’s right!

 

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus at Florida State University who has returned to live in his native England. His poems have appeared in Current Conservation, the Ekphrastic Review, Light, Lighten Up Online, the New Verse News, Oddball Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, WestWard Quarterly and other journals. In 2025 he won the Children’s Unpublished category of the Eyelands Book Awards with Flora’s Flock and Other Stories to Read Aloud. The poem was prompted by the Guardian story “Buckingham Palace has refuted claim by Charles Spencer, Diana’s brother, that then prince told him ‘we’ll forget her soon enough.'”