Snow Bird

Snow Bird


Through the maddest hours
I could hear your brushing wings
through the attic burst to flame
sharp white through thick smoke
north-winds calling me back home

Snow Bird, take me home again
wings bent in arctic reach
soot-black against imagined frost
I called you through this hell of heat
you answered me with flight
like midnight church bells
happiness this loud
will wake the damned

Through a haze of pain
against the weight of breaking bones
I heard you tapping at warm windows
leaving me in frozen drifting dreams
rushing up the long road home

Snow Bird, lead me home again
where naked branches break with cold
where silences grow weightless
I called you through a crushing noise
you answered me with flight
every mile brings me closer
to the spirit I left behind
let's grab the wind before it dies

Through the painful exodus
on the tortured path that led
three hundred miles from home
leaving ghosts like breadcrumbs
so I could never lose my way

Snow Bird, fly home with me
numb breathing into drifts
my wings no longer burn
footsteps deep in buried sound
let's shout, let's peal the bells!
I hear the north-winds call us home
we answer fast with flight
trailing ghosts against the light
rushing up the long road home