Banyan Thorns - Cold Keeps The Covenant

Frost locks the language out of the ground, Every green promise pulled inward and sealed. The Hollow Root listens beneath frozen loam, While breath turns to proof of what’s real. No growth without stillness, no life without loss, The cold writes the law in bone. What survives learns silence, What endures learns stone. Cold keeps the covenant, Sharp as a vow in the dark. It strips us to truth and marrow, Till nothing remains but the mark. No mercy, no malice, Just balance exact and severe… The Hollow Root remembers What only winter can clear. Rivers move slow with iron breath, Black water holding its tongue. The forest stands like a tribunal, Judging the old and the young. Leaves rot honest under snow, Mushrooms wait without prayer. Cold teaches the soul to loosen its grip On warmth it was never owed. Freeze the flesh. Still the want. Let desire starve into knowing. What dies unresisted Returns unbroken. I lay my hands on frozen bark, Feel the pulse retreating deep. The Hollow Root does not comfort, It keeps what it needs to keep. Seeds sleep like sealed mouths, Dreaming of knives and rain. The cycle turns without asking If the living feel pain. Cold keeps the covenant, Sharp as a vow in the dark. It strips us to truth and marrow, Till nothing remains but the mark. No mercy, no malice, Just balance exact and severe… The Hollow Root remembers What only winter can clear. Cold keeps the covenant, Older than fire or name. It burns without flame or kindness, And purifies just the same. When spring finally earns its entrance Through rot and disciplined ground, It rises clean of illusion… Because winter was never kind. Praise the cold. Praise the cut. Praise the silence that holds the root.