"In Time Of War" I will read because it's the broadside that
was made for this event, and you know,
I've always been kind of interested in ghosts.
And then I finally met one, and I'm not interested in them
anymore.
But after I met this ghost, I decided
to research the different ghosts of Europe
in the old buildings, like castles and manor
houses and old buildings.
They all have these stories, and they're very similar.
But I don't think that's what we should
be afraid of is what the poem is about.
It's titled "In Time Of War."
And so we stayed night after night awake
until the moon fell behind the blackened Cypress,
and bats returned to their caverns
having gorged on the night air.
And all remained still until the hour
of rising when the Headless Woman was no longer seen
nor a ghostly drum heard nor anyone taking
the form of mist or a Fiddler.
And the box never opened by itself,
nor were there whispers or other sounds, no rustling
dress or pet ape trapped in a secret passage.
But there was a labored breathing and unseen hands
leafing through the pages of a visitor's book,
and above the ruins a girl in white lace
and five or more candles floating.
And someone did see a white dog bound into a nearby wood,
but there were neither bagpipes nor a smiling skull,
no skeletons piled in the oubliette,
and there was as it turned out no yellow monkey, no blood
leaking from a slit throat.
And no one saw a woman carrying the severed head.
But there were children standing on their own graves,
and there was the distant rumble of cannon.