[The Shroud]

"Untitled"

The little girl in pig-tails blonde
skipped through the cemetery gates
The day had gone and all along
the headstones she laughed and played
Her striped Christmas candy cane
pacified her childish soul
Until she dropped it on a grave
sticky and stuck with soil
Her treat of red and white there lain
upon the dark and dampened earth
Her little hand reached to regain
but another hand grabbed it first
It disappeared beneath the dirt
to treat the lips of the deceased
The little girl devoid of mirth
stood still, no longer lively she
A candy cane of black and grey
appeared where the old one had dropped
Her striped Christmas candy pain
Pacified her childhood despond