Every time the winter comes a-winding
Down from the gray-stained sky
Then here you surely come a-crawling
Scrounging about for love
But I gave you all my loving, darling,
When the sun poured down our flesh
And all the love we could ever want
sprang forth from the earth at our feet
Now my stores have emptied out
They lie among the husks of our harvest
And I wither just as our once bountiful garden
A skeleton left barren and subject to decay
But now you kneel before me, sorry as can be,
Begging for a breath of mercy
Or a scrap of comfort as though either one
Had ever been mine to give or receive
This winter shall freeze you through and through
Your pining and your grieving much the same
If nothing will satisfy your gnawing avarice
Then let go of my poor and weary bones
I gave you all of my loving, darling
Last summer when it was easy and willing
When I was wholly myself and desired nothing
And by extension had you beneath the moon
But I haven't seen the moon in days, my dear
And I have no more love for me or you
My flowers wilt and bear their bones
As I have mine, as you have yours,
and as our love has borne this labor
we must bear its loneliness, humbly
And persevere in spite of all this frost and rot
And say I love you before we fade away
