Winter Man

© Amy Soucy

 
Winter Man like a trembling leaf
Blew in from the north one August week
He had eyes like razors hands of earth
Singing songs I'd never heard before

He sang about his leaving and second chances lost
I could hear the heartache in his song
I was drawn to the wreckage, I could not resist
A call that I'd been hearing for so long

When he sang, it was clear
Day heard night's siren call
And knew as she was rising
She would fall 

Among the yellow birches, on tracks above your town
Orion hovered aiming for our hearts
We sang every song we knew, verses and refrain
Voices rose above the wind and then softly fell apart 

On bones and stones we took your town by storm
Plans were made and open roads appeared
We went walking backward to see the tracks we laid
There we met the shadows that we feared

But when we sang there was hope
Sun felt moon's lonely call
And knew as they were rising
They would fall

Beyond the trouble here
Beyond the hope and fear
When the swallows learn to fly
We will sing a soft goodbye  
Beyond these shadows all our tears will dry 

Winter Man disappeared just before the thaw
As rivers raged beneath the frozen ground
Little leaf I let you go, grateful now I know,
That sometimes being lost is better off than being found

And oh Winter Man you were right
Oh my dear, you said it all
That everything that rises must fall