Read "There's been a Death in the Opposite House" by Emily Dickinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
There's been a death in the opposite house / As lately as to-day.
I know it by the numb look / Such houses have alway.
The neighbors rustle in and out, / The doctor drives away.
A window opens like a pod, / Abrupt, mechanically;
Somebody flings a mattress out, -- / The children hurry by; / They wonder if It died on that, -- / I used to when a boy.
The minister goes stiffly in / As if the house were his, / And he owned all the mourners now, / And little boys besides;
And then the milliner, and the man / Of the appalling trade, / To take the measure of the house.
There'll be that dark parade
Of tassels and of coaches soon; / It's easy as a sign, -- / The intuition of the news / In just a country town.