Phoenix and Snowflake

Phoenix and Snowflake

Phoenix and snowflake are playing poker on the lawn.
Snowflake makes a bet, plays a hand and then is gone.
Phoenix takes her time because she's holding all the aces.
The melted snowflake's followed by a million more replacements,
Everyone of whom will place a bet and disappear before the hand 
Is even seen or played and then a hundred million more
Will cover up the browning grass with snowflake powdered lawn
'Til the phoenix' flame is frozen by a billion snowflake dawn.

I see the winding river
I see the mountain so high
I see the shadow valley
I see the sun in the sky

If I had a trillion dollars I would throw it in the air.
If I had a trillion dollars I'd throw it all up in the air.
Make a bet with the Committee that the money would stay there
Floating free up in the clouds floating free without a care
Golden eagles would collect it all and would take it all away
Like the snow with sunlight on it it would vanish in a day
Like the snow with sunlight on it it would shimmer 'til it bleeds
Through the topsoil six feet under, water roots and water seeds.

Jack o' Diamonds, Jack of Clubs, double Deuces, five of Hearts,
Clean me out and then you tell me that the end is where it starts.
Been a working man, a gambling man, a fisherman, a monk,
been a coward, and a hero, and a lover, and a punk.
Did it all pursuing happiness and never lived a day
That I didn't hit the jackpot and then throw it all away
'Til what I could a been, what I could a done had nearly made me blind,
And the chance I never took was like a blizzard in my mind.

I see the winding river
I see the mountain so high
I see the greenest valley
I see the sun in the sky

Phoenix and Snowflake are playing poker on the lawn.
Snowflake makes a bet and plays the hand and then is gone.
Phoenix takes her time and waits for moonlight in the spring,
When the dawn calls out her name, then through the sky she takes to wing,
Singing, "ashes for the poor, ashes for the dead, 
I am rising from the ashes of the visions in my head."
As the visions fall like snowflakes, falling faster than the storm,
Nightmares startle her awake to greet another golden morn. 

Copyright © 2012, 2014 by David Larstein, all rights reserved 

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