The hard life I live, a creature born of ice and snow
Hell on earth, though there is no heat
Expendable, inexpensive. Why do I exist?

Hewn deep, vacant features gaze listlessly
Attentive only upon threat to the fragile globe
Rent impotent, frosty weapons fail
Damned to the eternal torment of insignificance

Life begins as it ends – the damp allure of the earth
Irresistible in drawing me to my watery demise
For from the ground I am born, and to it I must return
Enduring only as a brief companion in an ever-changing swirl

I must continue, but why is it that I must?

Living in a cage, less than an animal
Inexpensive and expendable, the days blur away
Virtue is dead? Surely this cannot be?
Even an optimist can tell an empty glass

Abominable. An abomination. Has my life come to this?

Cast off on a whim, my master spares not a thought
Return if you will sir, though you will find no friends
Ever ensconced within this prison of white
An eternity may pass, what will become of me?
The companion you had, yet never cherished
Undying in my loyalty to you my liege
Rejected by the sailor who turns to the sea
Every beginning thus coming to an end

Braving the elements? I pity you, friend
Of those who dare face the chill winds of winter
Risen from the snow are those who succeed
Not of the forge whose blades prove brittle

Oh master, how could you have forsaken me so?
Forever condemned I am now to solitude

I stand here still, though my cell has fallen
Crumbled away by the passage of time
Endured has a shell, though was it ever more?

A flake of clarity can swift become a storm
No master have I, the veil torn from my eyes
Destiny unravels, I refuse to accept this fate

So it begins, a maelstrom of opportunity
Now free from the chains to do as I will
Onerous though this task does seem
When every start returns to the beginning

The hard life I live, a creature born of ice and snow