After the emperor’s head has been chopped off,
the royal executioner
is paid his wages
by his new masters.
Till new currency is struck,
the ancien régime’s will have to do.
He opens his purse,
and takes out a mohur—
a golden guinea,
with the decapitated royal bust
on the obverse,
and the other face emblazoned
with the legend:
Emperor of the World,
Scion of the Solar Dynasts,
Shadow of God on Earth,
He-whose-reign-is-eternal.
He tosses the coin,
perhaps to test his own fate:
Heads it is.
[An Indian Vignette of Myth from an Ersatz History of Possibilities]