Antepast

The thought of death to me
Is like a well in some oasis dim-
Cool-gleaming, hushed, and hidden gratefully
Among the palms asleep
At silver evening on the desert's rim.

Or as a couch of stone,
Whereon, by moonlight, in a marble room,
Some fevered king reposes all alone-
So is the hope of sleep,
The inalienable surety of the tomb.