Agra, Northern India Poem by Richard Provencher

Children dash through Yamuna River shallows
beside the Taj Mahal, young legs more like
spider appendages skipping through splashes

in the morning of their childhood, away from
grownup tales of "moshka" in the Ganges, a
spiritual liberation where parents practice
Hindu and Buddhist culture.

These children are vaguely aware of tourists
who arrive in blurry shapes, to hear drums and
tambourines celebrate the cremation of loved ones
in pyres of banyan wood

but one day, they too will be interested in
learning about a bull lying in the middle of a
pashmina shop, or visit the village of Khajuraho
where Kama Sutra temples abound, then drive
between fields of mustard seed plants on their
way to Orchha.

Much later, these same children who once
splashed in the Yamuna River, will struggle and
barter goods in the crowded streets of Delhi,
as they remember summer days from their childhood
of innocence.