Winter Is Coming

Steely Dan - Only a Fool Would Say That

"Winter is coming," Mordechai says — grim and dull.
Wound with despair for what is to come,
Mordechai feels handicapped
when all he wants to do is run.

"That cold dusk is dawning on me.
I must leave.
I must go."

But Mordechai does not realise:
if he runs,
all he will do is fall.
Because the journey is to be walked,
the pain is to be felt intensely.
So does suffering come and make its home,
like an old wound reopening.

Perhaps this will answer the ambiguity that life has been to you,
Mordechai.
Release your fists,
open your palms,
and allow these eager hands to hold you.

Winter has been unkind and cruel — and I won’t argue.
You have been frostbitten,
left thirsty and without gruel,
and yes, often, there was solitude.

Remember, Mordechai —
you told me to jump even though I was convinced I would die.
You told me I wouldn’t, and though it took some time,
I held my breath and did as you said:
I jumped, I fell, and underneath awaited a beautiful flower bed.

Who looks forward to the death that is coming?
We will welcome him when he comes.
The odds of his visit no higher than his absence —
so, we let life go by.

We live; we let die.
And at the end of it,
Mordechai,
thousands of hands will hold the sand
thrown before they bury you.
And thankful will you be —
for the hands, the sand, and the life that held you and pierced you.
Then, you might realise,
stronger was the spirit
than the wood, the soil,
the heaviness that encases you.