The Kind Ghosts

She sleeps on soft, last breaths; but no ghost looms

Out of the stillness of her palace wall,

Her wall of boys on boys and dooms on dooms.

She dreams of golden gardens and sweet glooms,

Not marvelling why her roses never fall

Nor what red mouths were torn to make their blooms.

The shades keep down which well might roam her hall.

Quiet their blood lies in her crimson rooms

And she is not afraid of their footfall.

They move not from her tapestries, their pall,

Nor pace her terraces, their hecatombs,

Lest aught she be disturbed, or grieved at all.