The Forbidden Trip

All in a day's work, the CUNning C dragged my mind to the historical CUNning C who had been told and retold by many authors. Contrary to her ambition, she actually initiated a republic named in alphabet beginning with a "C". She was a Manchu fluent in Chinese born cunning. Her name was Empress Dowager Cixi. See? 

forbidden!
is the word that gives a sense of
power.

for someone like her
that sense of power has something to do with
inseCUrity
hence a watchtower:
"you, are not to see me, but I am."

tragic as it is
inseCUrity is never secure
a corner tower at every corner
needs yet to be secured with a moat all around the
forbidden city

standing inside the tower of power
she spread both her arms like 大
"I, am in charge!"

blue sky grinned from above
for she had missed her final lesson:
天
her moat freezed
snow concealed her schemes

amidst all sophisticated words she could speak under
a curly tongue
she couldn't write her own history

All in a day's work, the CUNning-C-approved trip turned into a forbidden trip because of the people from the forbidden city.
天
Even Beijing in winter outside the Forbidden City did not send me this much chill.


February the Seventeenth
2020