I walk through the ruined palace,
My bare feet bleeding across crystal shards of mirrors
Darkness slipping across my skin
And getting lost in the folds of my dress
I build fires from candles laced in cobwebs
And sip antique wine from golden goblets
I place her crown upon my head
To give me terrible dreams
Oh, how haunted I feel
With heavy, curling silver cradled around my hair
She wore this in her death
And as I drink, the shadowed halls become endless
The ghosts are called out from their silk beds
They wander arm in arm, whispering so faintly
I drink and drink and they stop to bow before me,
Enraptured by the glowing brittle treasure on my head
”Oh, but I am not a princess,” I slur all of my words
Smiles remain on their gaunt, pale faces
And they move on, have they not understood me?
Though their earthly bodies have rotten away
They wear their necklaces and bracelets still,
Remaining elegant in death
The yellow diamonds shine into the black hollow of their eyes
I move from goblet to goblet, lips drenched in red wine
I know that he is here
I run through the grand, destroyed halls
”Where are you? Where have you gone?”
”Please come back to me”
And the ghosts are laughing now, the colorless things,
At this drunken human girl-
Myself trembling and weeping and pleading
Their shattered princess, stripped of her very love
That soft, dark humming in his throat
I hear him, but where?
Oh the burning of my heart, the coldness of these ghosts
“He’s left you, he’s grown so tired”
”Oh that’s not true, no oh no”
My shaking hands beating at the stained gold walls
Spilling wine as I let my body fall
The ghosts float away, the candles remain
My beautiful crown rattles across the floor and I close my wasted eyes
Oh, here he is, in my darkening sleep
Forever lost in the forest of my dreams