on their way from the children's war

Of course I know it's really ward.

skinny ghosts dress like cowboys 
and rest at the railing by my door

on their way from the children's ward

But I find the concept of a children's war strangely charming.  Sad and creepy too, of course, punctuated by images of mud-smeared young savages with sharpened sticks, lifted straight from Lord of the Flies. 

But mostly it's a quieter sort of war - that children's war in my mind - where unicorns carry lances with pillows tied over the sharp parts and My Little Ponies lob raspberry bubbles at one another from sparkly canons.  And the skinny ghosts smile hopefully.