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Postcard Poems from Paul |
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 IV. NIRVANA EXPENDED |
Follow footsteps of the
fearsom ruler
Through the greatest palace complex ever
Where he reigned for centuries,
Excluding every male except his sons
And several hundred eunuchs
There to guard inviolate
The cloistered concubines.
The beauties entertaned each emperor
In his Forbidden City’s pleasure-garden fantasy
Of cypress trees and arches made of perforated stones
Until he summoned to his aerie
In the August-Moon Pavilion
Consorts for seclusion in a full-moon rendezvous.
The one who once was viewed
as deity immaculate
Disintegrated into burdensome anachronism
When subjects mired in poverty
Rose up against despotic cruelty and neglect,
Revolting in revulsion over such
Revolting circumstance.
----Forbidden City, Beijing
©2006 by Paul Hertelendy. The illustration is from IMSI'S Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted July 3, 2006.
Poet
Paul Hertelendy is also a critic with the San Francisco Bay Area
arts website
www.artssf.com. To
visit his website, click here: PAUL
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