Denial of Summer
Tempt me not with summer smiles and tales of warmer climes;
Do not offer summer's fruits or speak of sweeter times.
I am not a summer girl, nor ever could have been.
Frozen fields and icy skies sleep secret in my skin.
Oh, I am a child of the Snow Queen's garden,
I am winter's rose.
Best you beg my mother's pardon --
Or did you suppose
That I was waiting for a savior,
Praying for the spring?
Why should I trade winter's favor
For some summer king?
Tempt me not with summer smiles -- I want them not at all.
My heart is filled with all the chills and colors of the fall.
I am not a summer girl, not frightened of the ice.
My role is winter's lily-maid, not summer's sacrifice.
Tempt me not with summer smiles nor woo with summer lies;
I do not yearn for fields of green, nor blue and stormless skies.
I am not a summer girl, I do not need your kiss.
Princes of the summer have no place in tales like this.
Oh, I am a child of the Snow Queen's garden,
I am winter's rose.
Best you beg my mother's pardon --
Or did you suppose
That I was waiting for a savior,
Praying for the spring?
Why should I trade winter's favor
For some summer king?
Tempt me not with summer smiles, with eyes of summer blue;
My blues are frozen fantasies, I need no other hue.
I am not a summer girl, so why do you suppose
A summer king in waiting sought to pluck a winter rose?Written on: 2008-11-24. Seanan McGuire