Winter Solstice

Baby shoes on the sidewalk
They're playin' hopscotch in the dents we left
In the concrete
Never wore those moccasins you got me
For my birthday
Wasted all the gift card money on toys and games
And other things that break
Even then I sensed an emptiness in winter
When the creek froze in December
I could feel myself getting older
Maybe it was the soft decay,
Brittle branches finally breaking
That showed me time outside my understanding

It's not like Michigan in spring
When they find the kids who went
Out wandering and didn't make it home
Still I feel a little death,
In the shorter days when dinners on the table Getting cold
and no one cares to pick up the plates

Even now I see the dollhouse
Perfect still in all it's little ways
Though it exists, I cannot place it
And I witnessed it's decay,
Saw the ceiling when it caved in
When I go back, I have to dig it out from ruin

Little boots turning up when snow washes away
Got power tools in the truck for the elusive
Someday we can sweep the streets, clean it up
But everything that's coming up was supposed to have
Gone away