Winter Fire

If summer now frost lent winter its fire
Were wishes more than horses beggars rode
And we not turned inside out with desire:

If frogs were princes concealed by some load
Of karmic comeuppance some witchery
Spelled out in spells not for ordinary
People like princes but others like we
Are (of the extra extraordinary):

Then princes might worry others might see
Them for the fraudulent frogs which they are
And scurry to leap farther if not far
Since princes pay others to leap all day
We know how to leapfrog out of their way

But winter is frost as summer was fire
And we are turned inside out with desire

(I thank you that I am O Lord
On this my natal day
At least I think I am [you see
I might have been away]

And that I think I am would be
Enough for Descartes [say]
So that should be enough for me
That shining two-edged sword

That blade of being only this
Now [lest it fade away]
To learn love and to earn its kiss
[And may it not betray])

I could give me to you if you would
Daring I might be misunderstood
But you give to me so I give to
You

We wear our hearts on our sleeves to share
Anyway anytime anywhere
Yet you remain you and I stay me
Too

That I am me is how I define
You
And that you are you how you assign
Me
Establishing our identity

Were we the same not others we could not
Find the otherness which sameness forgot

Realizing our reality
We remember
Our play has no rehearsals they say
Some learn roles late and lines the hard way
In December

Then when spring arrives
Only love survives
Like an ember
Reflected in the frost on the wall

Winter blooms spring as summer fruits fall
And winter desire bears fire after all

+Steven Curtis Lance



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