Confound Winter (Tess Kincaid)

                   with anxious clouds of breath―

watch for fog on steps

hide under a sky crosshatched

with trees―naked creak and echo

                   far from the frozen eye of trains

melt occasional snow

toast the idyll night

drink up the luxury―wake

                   to find a world reduced to shapes

covered in white

how long will this season survive―

                   love monumental with cold

more feverish than spring

Confound Winter is a short song for three voices, setting poetry by Tess Kincaid. It was composed for the Juice Vocal Trio and their 'Snow Queens' programme; Juice gave the first performance in London in December 2016.