Return to Ms Blithe tours the great stereotypes of the world, part two (poetry)

2. The Taj Mahal

Miss Blithe's exquisitely beaded
salwar kameez and
diaphanous dupatta,
purchased predictably from
the Kinara Bazaar,
do not make her look
any less the tourist here.
She sees this in the mirror
And yet, feels, somehow,
more ... appropriate...
she supposes
as she walks, head bowed,
toward the preternatural
whiteness of the dome.

She is almost blinded
By the brilliant excess
of Shah Jahan's apparent love
for Mumtaz Mahal,
realized in
eternal marble.
But Miss Blithe cannot help
wondering - even as she gazes
drenched in wonder
at the magnificence -
just what the man
was compensating for..

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