The Sinking House

Click, bang, bolt the door!

Something is gone that was here before.

[4] |

Marjorie Allen Seifert

How can it be that a ghost or a mouse

Can give a soul to an empty house?

The ghost that is gone came creep, creep, creep,

To trouble the dreams of my deepest sleep-

Troubled my dreams till I woke, and then

Left me alone to sleep again.

And in the morning I almost

Forgot the visit of mouse or ghost,

Rose and sang and splashed and dressed

With never a thought for my hidden guest;

And never once, I swear on my soul,

Did I think to look for his hidey-hole.

Click, bang, bolt the door!

Too late-the ghost will not walk any more,

The mouse (if really a mouse was he)

Will never scamper and squeak at me.

For the house is empty, the house is bare,

And only dust is under the chair,

And only darkness is under the bed,

And only a pillow is under my head;

And the, brave dark closet down the hall

Holds last year's clothing, that is all!

Twist your finger and bite your lip,

For your house is sinking like a ship,

And waves of dreadful silence pour

Into the window, into the door;

Till soon the stretch of innocent lawn

Will hide the place where your house has gone,

For everyone knows that ghost and mouse

Desert the sill of a sinking house.

CHANG-FU

In the celestial city of Chang-Fu

There is a palace of jade

That the cool winds blow through

On summer afternoons. . . . I am afraid

I'll never see the city of Chang-Fu.

To journey across the Chinese sea,

And enter a palace gate,

Takes courage and a golden key. .. .

It is too late;

Only a key of iron was given to me.

A key of iron that opened every door

Whereon I knocked,

But the tall dragon-gates before