You pace the bricks of Herengracht stones
Your breath writes cloud on wrought iron bones
Salix alba weeps in winter light
Root systems hold through frozen night
Canal willow drinks the black tide
You stand where ghost ships used to glide
Dormancy breaks in silent wood
Even guardians know they should
Your torch beam cuts the muffled air
Lenticels gasp the bark is bare
Xylem waits for sap to rise
Reflected in your tired eyes
Canal willow drinks the black tide
You stand where ghost ships used to glide
Dormancy breaks in silent wood
Even guardians know they should
The badge weighs heavy on your chest
Like clay soil puts roots to rest
Cambium records each passing year
Ring by ring the truth draws near
No chloroplast to catch the dawn
Just sodium lamps on cobblestones drawn
You talk to bark but hear no word
Only water cold and blurred
Phloem moves the sugar slow
Under bridges white with snow
You unravel thread by thread
Like bark that peels from winter dead
Canal willow drinks the black tide
You stand where ghost ships used to glide
Dormancy breaks in silent wood
Even guardians know they should
Morning paints the water grey
Bud swell signals coming day
You fold the chair the shift is done
Roots survive without the sun
Canal willow drinks the black tide
You stand where ghost ships used to glide
Dormancy breaks in silent wood
Even guardians know they should
Harmonies rise on doubled voice
Nature makes its winter choice
Salix holds the canal wall
You walk home before the fall
Fog lifts slow on Herengracht
