Poems (Series 3) / by Emily Dickinson [electronic text]

XLVIII.

THERE's been a death in the opposite house As lately as to-day. I know it by the numb look Such houses have alway.

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.