Looking at the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort

no one heard the wailing of metal over marble
that afternoon, the masonry of agony
was too persuasive in its percussion
for ears to intrude and decipher its pain.

the worn-out workers, too, seemed unaware
of the plaintive cries the palpitating walls made
as their hands toiled and hammered
at this ashen-faced monument

to imperial anguish.

slow patricide was how the story unfolded
eventually, and the river became a witness
to the slaughtering that took place,
while shaking the earth from his axis

the chasm-like-river had its own version
of what happened, and the crying calligraphies
on the walls simply digressed into poetry
to explain this mournful mausoleum’s demise

into an imperial anecdote.

(C) 2005 Ashish B. Gorde

Note: In his declining years, the Mughal Emperor Shahjehan who built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, was imprisoned in the Agra Fort by his son Aurangzeb. A river separates the Taj Mahal from the Fort, and the deposed Emperor would spend his time watching the construction of the Taj from the place where he was imprisoned. Aurangzeb killed all the other claimants to the throne, which included his brothers among others. Although history is rather cruel on Aurangzeb, nevertheless, I feel, one should commend him for not completely suspending the construction of the Taj when he assumed power. As an emperor, he would have been able to do that but he didn't. However, he did manage to imitate the Taj when he constructed a similar monument in memory of his wife. "Bibi ka Maqbara" in Daulatabad, Central India, pales in comparison to the real McCoy.