[Verse 1]

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?



[Chorus]

Not the roses

Not the buyers

Not the sellers

Maybe winter

[Verse 2]

Cause winter is 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



[Verse 3]

When I was a small girl I walked through the market

Holding my dad's hand, mitten in gloved hand

At night there were roses lit up in glass boxes

The heat-lamps would keep them from freezing in winter



[Verse 4]

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



[Chorus]

Who's the winner?

Not the roses

Not the buyers

Not the sellers



Not the tellers

Of these stories

Not the fathers

Not their children



Not those waking

On a dark night

Through a memory

They're forgetting

Who's the winner? Who's the winner?

Maybe winter, maybe winter



[Verse 5]

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



[Instrumentation]



[Verse 6]

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



[Verse 7]

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



[Chorus]

Who's the winner?

Not the roses

Not the buyers

Not the sellers



Not the tellers

Of these stories

Not the fathers

Not their children



Who's the winner?

Not the roses

Not the buyers

Not the sellers



Not the tellers

Of these stories

Not the fathers

Not their children



[Outro]

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?