Always Winter (Revision)

[Leanne]

So, you have a thing for tall, pale women?

for Jadis

The first flakes were red--not white. -- I'm still not convinced about this phrasing -- I tend to think that the negation would be better first, ie. not white, but red -- but it's a preference thing
Before light, before night, there was
an everlasting tree.

Before the tree,
if you held a stone
to your ear
it would whisper

of seeds beneath soil--
the buds restless. -- if I was going to have a complaint about lineation it would be this stanza break of which, at the risk of sounding like Tectak, I don't really see the purpose

If you warmed the stone
between your hands,
it would pulse like the heart
of a traitor,

like a blush
on your too-white skin.

I really love this strongly-woven allusion. It gives me a sense of evil being out of place and destined to fail beneath the eternal good of nature. Nicely done, Todd.