When autumn’s red and russet days
Grow chill and lose the warming rays
That set the leaves on trees ablaze
With hues intense,
Harsh winter lies – and sings its praise-
Lost innocence.

It bares the limbs of sleeping trees
And kills the balmy, autumn breeze
Till sodden ground begins to freeze
And flowers die.
As days get colder by degrees
Much worse is nigh.

Then mesmerising falling snow
Drifts gently to the earth below
And rivers stop their constant flow -
White stillness reigns.
Then feel the icy blizzards blow
To chill the veins.

A dream-like state invades the mind
As bodies freeze and eyes go blind
And storms blow hard, with more behind,
To steal the soul.
The winter challenges mankind
To lose control.

With reason lost or in suspense
Hypnotic silence steals the sense,
And nothing’s offered, just pretense,
Against the chills.
We have no answer, no defence
As winter kills.

For countless years we have evolved
And countless problems have we solved
But never once have we resolved
This wint’ry death.
Nor will this failure be absolved
With our last breath.