Winter’s Mirror

Soon after Christmas when the rooms are all bare
And the decs are all boxed and stowed under the stairs
When the sun barely raises his head all the day
And Summer is really a long time away
When the pavements and rooftops glimmer with frost
And the season’s festivities seem to be lost
A young girl looks out on this bleak Winter landscape
Amazed how the snow has created a new shape
To all of the things that she sees every day
Like the trees and the fields and the hills far away
With a smile on her face her excitement is rising
At the thought of the fields that she’ll soon be exploring
With her scarf and her hat and her warm Winter coat
All buttoned up tight like the sails of a boat
She sets off from her home through the fields to discover
A fresh frosty fairground not touched by another
Where she skates on the puddles and slides through the trees
Examines the spider’s webs icy on leaves
Her breath on the air leaves a cloud in her wake
As she watches the robin no sound does he make
Then out of the corner of her wonderstruck eye
A much deeper mystery she now does espy
As a child born to nature she knows straight away
That the vision she’s seeing is not of this day
In every frozen fractal around her
The ice on the lake and the frost on the hedge burr
From the rime on the path and the icicle’s shine
The essence of Winter has risen divine
She looks into the mirror of Winter reflected
And sees not herself but a spirit connected
To white Winter wanderings lost in the snow
She reaches her hand out and is ready to go
And join with the frost and the cold Winter day
And never return to her family to play
Because once you have looked into cold Winter’s eyes
You’ll float gently away like the freest bird flies
And you’ll watch as the rooftops recede in the distance
The world becomes small taken in with a mere glance
And you’ll dream of a world made of crystalline towers
The most perfect of shapes fall in icicle showers
And you won’t want to leave though you’ll wonder sometimes
Of your friends and your family all left behind
Until next year when the season’s beginning to harden
You’ll awake at the icicle’s sound in the garden
And you’ll watch a young girl gaze into Winter’s mirror
And you’ll wonder at what the cold Winter will give her
And you’ll see that you’ve changed and it all won’t seem so clear
Your life if is drifting neither far or so near
And you’ll realise a million life times have passed
Since the day you set off with your sails at full mast
And the seasons will fade with the passing of time
But when Winter returns his cool smile will still shine
Because Winter is timeless and faceless and ruthless
And deeper than the darkest of dreams could ever guess
So next time you walk in the Winter alone
Remember you’re never really alone