As it appears, we've divided the years
for the Winter Count,
for the Winter Count.

Cut through your fears like a razorback.
Open and worn like a paperback.

If a spider could write,
if a spider could write,
she'd weave a story in her web.

(Nowadays there are still girls and boys whose curiousity leads them to strange places.)
(I'm the el crash your airplane friday, and I represent el cheapo wine,
get nice and high and fly around the room friday)
(Man, sidewalks is for sissies.)
(Oh hi, who are you? I said hello. Is that Marijuana?)
(Straight from the bottle. This is the nicest wine I've ever tasted,
this the bestest wine in the whole wide world.)
(That is Marijuana, isn't it?)
(This good thing I'm tellin' you about tonight, is better, uh, is sweeter than any tongue could tell.)
(Do you know what those pills are?)
(Uh-uh, but they're that white rabbit's who just went down that--)
(Well, do you know who he is?)
(Uh-uh, I guess not.)

I should think the chances of it being the actual phantasm of some dead dog,
or an elemental, are about equal.
It is probably sometimes the one, and sometimes the other,
and its origin is, very possibly, like that of the banshee.

(that is Marijuana, isn't it?)
That is Marijuana, isn't it.

(Listen, I can tell you more about time in seconds,
than you can hear in years.)
(I was shoutin' of victory and speakin' in tongues all that time.)

Mother Earth, you know me,
like I'm Shoshone.
Mother Earth, you told me what it's all about.

Mother Earth, you showed me,
with ceremony,
now put yourselves together for the Winter Count.

The Winter Count,
The Winter Count,
The Winter Count,
We've been painting stories on our skin.

In boots of demons, I've been creepin'
on the meanings of the seasons,
with a black sun tooth,
with a black sun tooth.

Like blood and semen, I've been speakin'
in between them, while they're dreamin',
with a black sun tooth,
with a black sun tooth.

Ya'll let me out.
The Winter Count,
perceives throughout,
with a black sun tooth,
with a black sun tooth.

With a black sun tooth,
with a black sun tooth.

With a black sun tooth,
with a black star, star tooth.

I said hello.

(Each one of these pictures, stands for one year.)
(We did not use numbers like today. Instead, each year had a symbol.)
(And the little boy had a wonderful time whenever he went to the forest,
but there were other people in the forest, too, and some were not very careful.)
(Time? Time? It's six o'clock, tea time, time to take a pill.)
(Some people gots that's mighty good, and they think they're so much,
that they think it's a disgrace to touch a serpent, I don't want to be highly esteemed among men.)
(I like the way the forest sounds,
the way the leaves rustle in the wind, and fall to the ground, and crunch under your feet,
the way the birds sing and the chipmunks chatter, and the way a squirrel scrambles up a tree,
that's why I'm askin' you to please be careful with fire, because when we lose a forest,
we lose a lot more than meets the eye, and I oughta know...)
(He was the one from the tribe, who would make drawings
of something important that happened each year.
There was no one way to do a winter count.
Different people did them in different ways.
Sometimes the symbols would circle around the hide and go inward.
Others would start in the middle and go outward. Or they may go across)
(The Winter Count could only be understood by the one who put it down.)