Must Be Winter

Waking up on winter mornings – the birth spasm reenacted Time to head out in a world of pain and cold Have to harness up the troika, don my bashlyk hood and jacket And see my shadowy comrades all now stark and old A scumbag in a salt truck, all snow chains and attitude Comes plowing through the fast lane in a blitz As the man in his Corolla, a little bald patch of gratitude, Moves over giving thanks he still exists Must be winter Must be wintertime again Must be winter Must be wintertime again The shivering commuters on the avenues of frost – On this great and cramped peninsula, no fear And when those storms rage in from the west, they trumpet, “All for the best” while shaking like suspects in front of a two-way mirror My lover is at my bedside, kneeling in our warm cathedral Maybe today we won’t have to go out of doors But if I send her out in the snow, should she come back hard and frozen, May I long for her summery flesh forevermore So I’m going home for Christmas, to my little makeshift suite by the pawnshop on the corner of 85th, And I’m gonna be warm tonight with my hopeless appetite And cozy thoughts of another season of bliss Must be winter Must be wintertime again Must be winter Must be wintertime again 2013, 2016