Still tinkering with this but... it's a weird 7/8 ballad I guess
That winter was colder far than any that I remember.
Snow fell on snow and turned to ice where it lay.
The girl lived above me, and the last time I saw her
Was two or three days before Valentine's Day.
The sound of her typewriter was loud sometimes late at night
And I heard her cry once or twice in the day
Each morning I watched her as she walked to the telephone
And shivered there talking, but to who I can't say.
That afternoon she played the same record endlessly
Long into the night - it wasn't easy to bear.
I woke the next morning to the cries of her children
At a window left open to the cold morning air.
We broke down the front door with the help of a passer-by
The smell of the gas so strong it made our throats raw
She left bread for the toddler and some milk for the baby
And a towel soaked with water jammed under their door
They closed the doors gently on the back of the ambulance.
My breath froze before me as they drove her away.
A day or two later her husband came by
And moved in his mistress, on Valentine's Day.
I think of her now and them, and how she would talk to me,
A foolish old man with my hair turned to gray.
Somewhere I still have the card that I bought,
Half-meaning to give her on Valentine's Day.
Yes, somewhere I still have the card that I bought
Half-meaning to give her on Valentine’s Day.
