Winter (part 9): A Soldier's Wife (part 1)

Author: Stephen W. Cote

The winter has left me just a pint and a dream

Stumbling down slick cobblestone streets

The farmers yield no wheat or cream

Wasted lives living on the snow at our feet

Our palsied minds bask in our sins

Priests stow their wares and leave

The paupers' wives have slain their last hens

Feed the young the tears they grieve

In the gray haze of dusk, fog and cold

Soldiers' wives drone to a somber dance

Waking dead of heart, head and soul

Wishing for a fairytale romance

White stallions whisk us away to new lands

And princes shower us with gems

Dressed in silk with gold rings on our hands

Handmaidens kiss our hems

But the cobbled road ends too soon

A soldier's wife guilty by chance

I once danced and loved, sang and swooned

Now only have a fairytale romance