a lonely winter night’s song

a year went by and then another

another orange summer chased by the rains

and now the snow is on the mountains again

soon we’ll have frost where there now is dew

another winter’s here and no sign of you

your memory was supposed to fade away

but fonder the heart has grown

grown steadily like the poplar trees

that we planted along the canal that feeds

the fields that together we ploughed

tall they stand proud and stout now 

and with their leaves all dancing their heads sway

in the winds that will bring back the birds to the lake

and if only they would bring you too

what wouldn’t i give, what wouldn’t i do

to share with you a thermos of tea

watching another sunset from the hilltops

with our heads in the clouds and the town at our feet

and our airy conversations carried by the breeze

when you always mocked thoreau

were fascinated by chatwin’s books

and by sartre and proudhon 

and though you thought nothing of his poetry

had behind you door that one photograph of rimbaud

him in harar, standing brazenly in white  

harar, where they feed the hyaenas at night

i remember the last conversation we had

though how could i have known that then?

it was on the hill beyond the last aspen stands

where we’d gone riding far outside town

at sunset the sky was shredded into flaming bands

and you were thinking out aloud

about why - when they can fly to distant lands -

do the crows keep coming back

why don’t they just fly on and on

and now you’ve been gone so long

while here i am, alone with this quaint old song

as the days get shorter every day by a furlong

and sooner descends every twilight
ahead of time at dusk the cold nights arrive

all day in the fields to stay busy i strive

but what can i do when the blanket of stars unfurls

above clear violet skies? lonely by the coal brazier i sit

singing, if you’ve seen enough of the world

won’t you deign to pay me a visit?

for now the snow is on the mountains again

and soon we’ll have frost where there now is dew

another winter’s here and

it’d be nice to see you