OILS DIFFUSED
Wild suppositions
Bewilderment of fancy
The dead do not stir
Thoughts find utterance
Hints are worse than open speech
Accents of despair
Unsettled by truth
Passionate lamentations
Calmed by soothing tones
Held in rigid grief
Convulsive respiration
Smell of oils diffused
Image carved in stone
Withered flowers fall to dust
Silence of the tomb
(Written in senryu format this was inspired by some
passages in Rookwood by William Harrison Ainsworth
first published back in 1834)