Stains

THE THREE ghosts on the lonesome road

Spake each to one another,

“Whence came that stain about your mouth

No lifted hand may cover?”

“From eating of forbidden fruit,

Brother, my brother.”

The three ghosts on the sunless road

Spake each to one another,

“Whence came that red burn on your foot

No dust nor ash may cover?”

“I stamped a neighbor’s hearth-flame out,

Brother, my brother.”

The three ghosts on the windless road

Spake each to one another,

“Whence came that blood upon your hand

No other hand may cover?”

“From breaking of a woman’s heart,

Brother, my brother.”

“Yet on the earth clean men we walked,

Glutton and Thief and Lover;

White flesh and fair it hid our stains

That no man might discover.”

“Naked the soul goes up to God,

Brother, my brother.”