Dolly keeps a secret
Safer than a Friend
Dolly's silent sympathy
Lasts without end.

Friends may betray us
Love may Decay
Dolly's Discretion
Outlasts our Day.

Could Dolly tell of us?
Her wax lips are sealed.
Much has she meditated
Much - ah - concealed.

Dolly ever sleepless
Watches above
The shreds and relics
Of our lost Love

Which her small fingers
Never may move.
Dolly is harmless.
We who did harm

Shall become chill as she
Who now are warm
She mocks Eternity
With her sly charm.



From Possession by A.S. Byatt