Willow Walk

fever

running into darkness and the grey wall

in the strange quicksand which is some dark trap

you have no choice you must cry out and fall

 

yet this is not the time for you to bawl

at life's injustice and go off the map

running into darkness and the grey wall

 

with none to hear as the hard sun stands tall

you have the strength to go another lap

you have no choice you must cry out and fall

 

but will get up though none may hear your call

since there is still a way out of the crap

running into darkness and the grey wall

 

even though light itself may seem to maul

your heart and no one ever gives a rap

you have no choice you must cry out and fall

 

struggle again to show you have the gall

to face down all the ravages of hap

running into darkness and the grey wall

you have no choice  you must cry out and fall

les neiges d'antan

yesterday's snow is dirty now and dark

we look for ice and worry about shade

as the sun rises and the long parade

of normal time resumes along the stark

roads and each newly-woken seems to mark

a world made gritty when light must abrade

both faith and fear the horror we have made

there's nothing but the chance of a new spark

from a great distance in another zone

there's news more bitter than the fleeting cold

and nothing that can make it feel more light

since each plain word will cut right to the bone

yet do no more than let us know what's told

which is that all will come to end in night

no river flowed

in the deep silence when the heavy snow

had closed the ways and frozen every road

each of us certain that no river flowed

and turning inwards for the gentle glow

of  home and hope that love will soon bestow

on all of those who have found out the code

of normal joy there's no more human mode

for us to find nor for the heart to know

yet as the dark descends on the cold city

we're held together by another light

clearer and kinder than we might deserve

safe in a time we know for rough and gritty

and made secure by truth instead of might

we find the gold around the final curve