Watch and wait, the shepherds, follow suit or be derailed
The temptress, twice as cunning. Veiled legends. Sorrow stales

Lose another wink and cast an eye into the shade
A darkened corner, lit, reveals a truth you had mis-laid

Second chances echo, as a voice, forgotten, calls
Spoken, croaking, barely heard, betwixt these sodden walls

Passage ways behind the line, to long forgotten lands
A harshness, draped in time, defies the coldness of her hand

Searching not, for memories, of when the ice was formed
Returns to us the harrowing mistakes that, once before,

Had weighed, like suits of armor, on our shoulders, not so broad
With no extent for mercy, just intent, to go with sword

Overhead, the view is bleak, as dusk adorns the moors
And winter's trees, like skeletons, do not protect our flaws

Water, rippled, leaves a trace, no matter how minute
The fallen lose their voices, but survivors are the mute

Forever changed and ailing, life we knew returns to dust
The rearranged and failing fade, and leave us, as they must

A fog obscures the litten way we did not need to see
And further into myst'ry goes our blind reality

Silhouettes of castles mount beyond our furthest grasp
Beyond even the wishful thoughts we borrowed from the past

Hollow sets in hill-sides, once were safety and reprieve
But decades, left, have driven in a new fragility

In frozen scenes of youth, an icy menace haunts the few
Subtlety, as stranger, as it shimmers into view

Distant summer, lost from sight, a battle never ends
On either side, a chance, but here, stability descends

The wise retreat to lick their wounds, and silence is their wake
But stealth and cowardice alone, do not, a wise man, make.