11 April 2010

The Forbidden City - A quartet. (Part 3) ...... The inner court (my dear Dragon dame)








My dear Dragon dame 
I can comprehend 
to break your fast
why you desired  crushed prize from an oysters deep
 
dipped in a new mothers’ milk 
For your supple skin 
the best of silk 

Why you needed plentiful of  dishes 
Of bird’s nest, sharks fins and  bear’s paws 
yet two mouthfuls
never the third

How  a little orchid bloomed 
to be a dowager
How the gentle maiden
wrapped in silk
shed it all and grew a skin of steel
Not maids or eunuchs
how you got an emperor to wait for you
 






How you spread your decree 
beyond the bastion walls 
ran it all through
 the middle kingdom


Yet my lady  
I can not fathom 
why you hid behind a curtain
While you breathed flames

Why you shun  the glow
while you commanded
 
the mind and the deeds 
of an realm 

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