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Show No-gooG Plow Ice in the summertime, and Alvin shook, Crackin ice aloud in the miller's pond, A mist of winter flowin through the wood A-fingerin his face, and where it touched He was numb, he was stricken dumb, his chin all chattery- Where are the birds? he wondered. When did they go? Get back to the edge, you Dark, you Cold, you Snow! Get north, you Wind, it's not your time to blow! I tell you, No! Mo! he cried, but the snow was blank and deep And didn't answer, and the fog was thick And didn't answer, and his flimsy clothes Were wet, and his breath was sharp as ice in his lung A-splittin him like a rail, and it made him mad. He yelled, though the sound froze solid at his teeth And the words dropped out and broke as they were said And his tongue went thick, and his lips were even number, "Dammit, it's summer!" With the snow like stars of death in your eyes? "It's summer!" The wind a-ticklin at your thighs? "It's summer!" Your breath a fog of ice? "Let it be spring! Let it be autumn, let it be anything!" But the edge of the world had found him, and he knew That the fire of the forges would be through, That the air would be thick and harsh at the end of the earth And all the flames a-dancin in his hearth, What were they worth? "Oh, you can cheat the trees, so dumb and slow, And you can jolly the birds that summer's through, But you can't fool me! I'll freeze to death before I let you get away with a lie so bold!" And he laughed as he was swallowed by the cold, He sang as the ice a-split him to the core, He whispered in his pain that it wasn't true. "You can bury me deep as hell in your humbug snow, But I know what I know." And look at that! A red-winged bird a-singin! Look at that! The leaves all thick and green! And he touched the bark so warm in the summer sun, He buried his hands in the soil and said, "I'm jiggered." "Oh, blacksmith's prentice boy," said the red-winged bird. "Took you long enough," said Alvin, sharp-like. "Came now, didn't I? So don't get snippety." "Just see to it you don't go off agin. Where you been?" |
