Best Loved Spots

winter roars her bully-yell till her sky fills up dark as a whale
where wolf had walked as did men, the tracks their paw and foot did pen
oh oh oh oh oh now just looks like a road again

winter froze her favorite well then boarded up with timber felled
her favorite well, her best-loved spot that milked what most had quick forgot-- oh oh oh oh oh

what once was bright as sun's lapel and woke us every night to tell
us what befalls our sleeping selves now arrives like the year's first snow: apologetic under toe, falls down dumb, then melts right off
gone gone gone gone and forgot gone gone and forgot
gone and forgot gone, her best-loved spot

winter hoards her little birds in shivering unspeaking herds
their bones so petite and polite form fists round fig-sized hearts ---oh oh oh oh oh

like warm cinders tumbling upwards
oh winter rang her bully bell and fullmoon's face fell quiet and pale
as a doubloon buried in backyard with the bones and the rain while the smokestacks raised
their half-mile flags at half mast till all the ice cracked

then all the well-wishing coins flew up in a bright copper-nickel geyser
to remind her what was

up in a bright copper-nickel geyser
the well-wishing coins
rang her bully bell
and woke us every night to tell
us how our sleeping selves arrive
at our favorite well, our best-loved spot

now gone
gone gone gone and forgot
gone gone and forgot
gone and forgot