thorns in the thicket of thought and thistles of the heart's crown makes a bitter tea which she pours thin for her porcelain dolls with plaster-of-paris cakes 'n' cookies neatly adorned with christmas colors daintily painted in blood and tears the bard speaks the rueful tale with cliffhanger pauses and excited joyous moments enclosed in the crisp images of winter wonderland the bard is a figure of such stories long white beard and eyes that twinkle like stars but now that the tale is told the song sung..... the bard retires his joyful face in his private room with its smoky mirrors and clutter of memorials to his younger days his words once on the powdered lips of elegance now are the dirt stained humble man's bread and butter they were grand stories they were adoration's to velvet goddesses.... but now they are but thorns in the thicket of thought picturesque visions of nubile nymph's only sadden the old man the bard packs away his joyful face it is for the readers whom he loves the road weary eyes linger upon her lace she was a beautiful moment of summer in his winter life she's now a sacred image protected by thorns in the thicket of thought