The sellers of flowers buy up old roses

They pull off dead petals, like old heads of lettuce

And sell 'em as new ones, for cheaper and fairer

But they die by the morning, so who is the winner.

Not the roses, not the buyers, not the sellers, maybe winter.

'cause winters coming, soon after summer

It runs faster, faster, chasing off autumn

We go from a warm sun to only a white sun

We go from a large sun to only a small one.

When I was a small girl, I walked through the market

Holding my dad's hand, mitten in gloved hand

That night there were roses, lit up in glass boxes

The heat lamps would keep them from freezing in winter.

We never bought them but somebody must have

Maybe they made it or maybe they froze up

Before any person had put them in water

And hoped that they'd still be alive by the morning.

Who's the winner

Not the roses, not the buyers, not the sellers,

Not the tellers, of the stories,

Not the fathers, not their children,

Not those walking on a dark night,

Through a memory they're forgetting,

Who's the winner, who's the winner

Maybe winter, maybe winter.

Somebody steps on a light through a tunnel

They're holding a piece of their mind in the rubble

Hold on, I won't let go, I want to know.

But no one lives long enough to see the outcome

To know any answers, to know what the point is

To know if the winter ever came closer

Than on that night when I walked with my father.

A small piece of ice, lodged in my mind

Lodged in my thoughts, lodged in my eyes

Cold all around, cold all around

Warm from inside, warm from inside.

Who's the winner

Not the roses, not the buyers, not the sellers,

Not the tellers, of the stories,

Not the fathers, not their children,

Who's the winner

Not the roses, not the buyers, not the sellers,

Not the tellers, of the stories,

Not the fathers, not their children,

Not those walking on a dark night,

Through a memory they're forgetting.

Who's the winner, who's the winner

Maybe winter, maybe winter

Who's the winner, who's the winner

Maybe winter, maybe winter

Who's the winner, who's the winner.