The Fragrance Of Lillies {1918} Poem by Anastasia Rhobolonskaya

What is the meaning of life ended so soon?
Of death, sudden, under the wide eyed moon?

They wakened the children from their beds,
And then on the floor let their blood run red.

They left the last house; carried them to the wood
Quickly hidden where the wild lilies had stood.

Sorrow and guilt lay there for long, almost eternal years;
For them, with only the clouds to shed tears.

They met, together in peace not found in life,
The lark and squirrel, none to start strife.

Over and through their bones grew the lilies, pale through speckled light
As soldiers of honour standing firmly upright.

“We know their names, see their features”
Chanted those faithful, interminable creatures

And though the girls in white dresses and small prince are no more,
They dance and breathe on through the lilies’ lore