Excerpt from The Lonely Death 

by Adelaide Crapsey, 1878–1914

In the cold I will rise, I will bathe

In waters of ice; myself

Will shiver, and shrive myself,

Alone in the dawn, and anoint

Forehead and feet and hands;

I will shutter the windows from light,

I will place in their sockets the four

Tall candles and set them aflame

In the grey of the dawn; and myself

Will lay myself straight in my bed,

And draw the sheet under my chin.

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Photograph: Macro of a colored ice sheet.