Just the other day, I helped my niece moved house.There were so many things to be moved and some of her belongings, most notably a bed and two big mattresses were given away. The mattresses reminded me of of American poet , Emily Dickinson's poem, There's been a death in the opposite house:
There's been a death in the opposite house
As lately as to-day.
I know it by the numb look
Such houses have always.
The neighbors rustle in and out,
The doctor drives away.
A window opens like a pod,
Abrupt, mechanically;
Somebody flings a mattress out,--
The children hurry by;
They wonder if It died on that,--
I used to when a boy.
The minister goes stiffly in
As if the house were his,
And he owned all the mourners now,
And little boys besides;
And then the milliner, and the man
Of the appalling trade,
To take the measure of the house.
There'll be that dark parade
Of tassels and of coaches soon;
It's easy as a sign,--
The intuition of the news
In just a country town.
I was led to believe that mattresses used by people who had just passed away would be thrown away... something you'd probably not do if the mattresses are as beautiful as the two below...
There's been a death in the opposite house
As lately as to-day.
I know it by the numb look
Such houses have always.
The neighbors rustle in and out,
The doctor drives away.
A window opens like a pod,
Abrupt, mechanically;
Somebody flings a mattress out,--
The children hurry by;
They wonder if It died on that,--
I used to when a boy.
The minister goes stiffly in
As if the house were his,
And he owned all the mourners now,
And little boys besides;
And then the milliner, and the man
Of the appalling trade,
To take the measure of the house.
There'll be that dark parade
Of tassels and of coaches soon;
It's easy as a sign,--
The intuition of the news
In just a country town.
I was led to believe that mattresses used by people who had just passed away would be thrown away... something you'd probably not do if the mattresses are as beautiful as the two below...
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