Winter Nights

Winter Nights

(By Walter Beck)

Trudging through nights that grow longer

When it's too cold to go barefoot;

Slow-sludgy riffs of Steele's growl

"Paranoid".

Waiting

For letters that say something

Other than "thanks but no thanks";

A strange bunch,

As Eric the Skinhead called them.

Just one

To give me half a chance;

It's all part of the game

But times like this,

When all I think of is another drink

And of going home,

It gets harder and harder to play.

Another friend of mine

Got married,

And I only knew

Because he said so online.

He was one from the old days.

Is it right to call them old days?

It's only been four years

But it seems like a lifetime.

My old man said he was extremely worried about me;

I don't blame him,

Nights in a cheap apartment

With a whiskey eggnog,

Fiddling with a cheap box cutter,

Muddy Waters on the stereo.

The snobs sometimes sneer at me

With my cheap food, cheap smokes

And cheap wine;

But it's the only living I know.

One night

When I was reeling from too much

Eric the Skinhead said

This would all pay off one day

That he wanted to see me succeed;

It was enough to get up to face another day.