The Forbidden City - A quartet. (Part 4) ...... Ghosts have no knees

They remained at  the  massive arch. When  the drum beat  twenty four and the people’s red ,the royal gold and bewildered purple spill over the evening sky.  Listening to the  Hutong sighs In the cold winter breeze. They heard sighs of mothers’ thinking of ways to feed their children crying of hunger . 

They watched a lone horseman rides through,with the freshest lychees for his emperor. The empress and his concubines. wanted to see what happens in empirical hall , in the red hue of lanterns .

Yet they could not go beyond the arch .

For Ghosts have no knees
You see
Beyond  high step
They could not proceed
At  gate  of harmony
They remain
But
then again
ghosts seldom travel on their feet
For they go
in people’s heads

They saw the  republic army with their guns & bayonets  march through the gates and ousted an  emperor  and free the eunuchs . On they went marching , the eunuchs , holding in their hands in porcelain flasks , their right to be buried as complete men.

They wanted to see the empty throne room, and where the concubines slept. Yet …They could not go beyond the arch

For Ghosts have no knees
You see
Beyond  high step
They could not proceed
At  gate  of harmony
They remain
But
then again
ghosts seldom travel on their feet
For they go
in people’s heads 

They saw the red ants with their little red books. Marching to the tune of an accordion , singing songs of a revolution. Singing of the days when the everybody would be equal  and they went marching in to the city forbidden . They wanted so much to join the crowd . Yet

For Ghosts have no knees
You see
Beyond  high step
They could not proceed
At  gate  of harmony
They remain
But
then again
ghosts seldom travel on their feet
For they go
in people’s heads

Another dusk is greeted in Beijing , by the flickering neon sign post spelling out Microsoft.. Under the amber hue of street lights , short skirts and naughty advances dot the street. The Square is almost empty , the tourists have gone back . The lone solder stands guard at the foot of the flag pole , yet the yellow stars on red have been folded till dawn.  Still it is a beautiful starry night . The Forbidden city seems like in the old days , the tourists who bought a 15Yuan ticket and travelled through the arches are no more. The familiar serenity prevails within the walls.

Ghosts … are nothing but tears ,sighs and weeps of pain , people  shed through the times , which has taken a form , a shape , an existence ….Ghosts .still gather at the arch , out of habit …Ghosts  of Peking, ghost  of Beijing and even ghosts of today’s BJ.