Henry VIII

It might have been divorce
or the death of Prince Philip
but somehow we got onto the topic
of King Henry the VIII,
and my husband,
whose brain is stuffed with facts,
tells the kids that Henry
had two of his wives beheaded,
which is when my seven-year-old daughter
asks in a loud
but otherwise calm voice
if she has permission
“to flip the bird to that king”
and before I could ask her
where she’d learned that expression
I heard myself say,
“yes, I think I will too.”