"I'VE GOT CHILBLAINS ON MY FINGERS!

the snow climbs the stairs
pushes open  the bedroom door
lies upon the bed falls..falls...asleep

this the house I first saw snow fall
as a little boy face pressed to pane
marvelling that a sky could fall at all

and be so white and quiet and still
my fingers numb with my first snowman
running back in crying

"I've got chilblains on my fingers!"
nose and toes not doing too good either

now it is I left outside
watching snow falling inside
the house of  my childhood.

the snow and I have switched places
it climbs the stairs step by step
I fall and fall backwards in time

the snow calling after me
with my childish voice
"I've got chilblains on my fingers!"

*

We used to pronounce it "chimblanes" so I always thought it was spelt like that.
It was so very strange for myself and the snow to change places after our first encounter way back in 1963...time's little joke.