The Houses of Winter

The houses of winter stand in a row

With chimneys that billow and windows that glow

They play out their scenes for the snow drifts and icy streets at night

Inside they are clearing their dishes away

Watching the news and recounting the day

And reading their children stories before their bedtime

And when the rites of the evening are done

The lights in the windows go dark one by one

Until the inhabitants all fall asleep

And the houses of winter become houses of dreams

And they tend their fires with care

And whisper a prayer

For their dreamers' safe-keeping

As the cold blows wind at the doors

And hangs icicle swords

Where his captives are sleeping

The houses of winter stand in the cold

Fending off blizzards and murderous lows

Biding their time till they breathe in the April breeze again

Harboring lives with their walls and their roofs

Watching like mothers watch over their broods

Wakeful as monks meditating before the day begins

And in the darkness, before the day starts

They ponder the purpose in their furnace hearts

And hope that the people for whom their hearts burn

With love, the long winter, will love with their own hearts in turn

And they tend their fires with care

And whisper a prayer

For their dreamers' safe-keeping

As the cold blows wind at the doors

And hangs icicle swords

Where his captives are sleeping

And Orion holds court in the sky

And night owls fly above frozen rivers

And dreams, like chimney smoke rise

From behind the closed eyes

In the houses of winter