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10-Villanelle

Villanelle

To be a ghost is a marvelous thing.

You can live it up when you’re truly dead.

And dance macabre as the vampires sing

You take your head off and give it a fling

For you know mid-night is nothing to dread

To be a ghost is a marvelous thing.

Now hear the death bells in the graveyard ring

As you lay in your comfy coffin bed

listening to blood-songs vampires sing

Look how the slimy worms around you cling

Busy little worms waiting to be fed.

To be a ghost is a marvelous thing.

Come, weir wolfs, and goblins are beckoning

Come, dance the macabre the moon is red

Dance to the requiem’s vampires sing

And rise from tombstone as the bats take wing

Come and shout, “Boo!” to the owl overhead.

To be a ghost is a marvelous thing.

And dance macabre as the vampires sing

Frank Murphy

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