Rebecca Krouse

She said there is no reason
And the truth is plain to see,
That I wandered through my playing cards
Would not let her be.
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might just as well been closed.

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face at first just ghostly
turned a whiter shade of pale.