| Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Little Book of Modern Verse. 1917. |
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| 107. Stains |
| | | By Theodosia Garrison |
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| THE THREE ghosts on the lonesome road | |
| Spake each to one another, | |
| “Whence came that stain about your mouth | |
| No lifted hand may cover?” | |
| “From eating of forbidden fruit, | 5 |
| Brother, my brother.” | |
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| The three ghosts on the sunless road | |
| Spake each to one another, | |
| “Whence came that red burn on your foot | |
| No dust nor ash may cover?” | 10 |
| “I stamped a neighbor’s hearth-flame out, | |
| Brother, my brother.” | |
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| The three ghosts on the windless road | |
| Spake each to one another, | |
| “Whence came that blood upon your hand | 15 |
| No other hand may cover?” | |
| “From breaking of a woman’s heart, | |
| Brother, my brother.” | |
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| “Yet on the earth clean men we walked, | |
| Glutton and Thief and Lover; | 20 |
| White flesh and fair it hid our stains | |
| That no man might discover.” | |
| “Naked the soul goes up to God, | |
| Brother, my brother.” | |
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