Let them wear black

Let the kings wear capes of black

And the jesters don a somber hue,

For today's a day of joy's utter lack

All for the loss of you.

Let the prince replace his frilly lace,

And the princesses stain their gossamer thread,

May sadness be in place from face to face

All because you are dead.

Replace the regal red with solemn, simple shades.

Replace, with evening, the colors of the dawn.

Beset the crown with black and boundless jades

All because you are gone.

But yet, dressed from regal crown to lowly foot

In the bleakest of blacks, as dark as soot,

We will not shed a tear.

Clad in mourning cloaks from day to dusk of ev'ry morrow,

We will neither bear nor ever show but a twinge of sorrow,

For though you were both close and dear,

Sadness does not change the truth that you're not here.