The Rifleman in Winter @martinjameskelly

Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

The Rifleman in Winter"

One good thing about snowfall
Is I get to build snow people
I build snowmen and snow women
And I also build snow wee ones

I stand beside them with my rifle
So people won’t knock them down
Seems like people don’t mess with snowmen
When a rifleman’s around

Some people say if they had their way
They’d move down to the tropics
That’s not my way but yeah, ok,
You know I’m not gonna stop them

Oh I’m a guy who’s happy in life
I’m gonna stay right where I am
Because I get a winter season
When I can build snowmen

I don’t use molds to make snowmen
I feel like that is cheating
Some snowman molds can be so detailed
You’d swear that they were breathing

What I do is get on the ground
And roll fresh snow into some balls
One large, one medium
and, of course, one small

Some people say if they had their way
They’d move down to the tropics
That’s not my way, but yeah, ok
You know I’m not gonna stop them

Oh I’m a guy who’s happy in life
I’m gonna stay right where I am
Because I get a winter season
When I can build snowmen

I met a lady one summer
Who was also into rifles
We spend most days at the rifle range
Then come home and read the Bible

Winter arrived and I got excited
I thought we’d go out and build snow people
I told her, “Put on your gloves,
let’s build snowmen, my love”
And she said, “Yeah, that’s not a thing for me, no”

so I dumped her
I dum dum dumped her

I can’t be with a lady who’s not into building snow men

Some people say if they had their way
They’d move down to the tropics
That’s not my way but yeah, ok,
You know I’m not gonna stop them

Oh I’m a guy who’s happy in life
I’m gonna stay right where I am
Because I get a winter season
When I can build snowmen

Da da da da da
Da da Dee dough
I like to build snowmen

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$Songwriting Songwriting class begins the same An envelope with my name A check I slide across the desk Beside a song I’ve second-guessed We read the lines out loud and slow She asks me what I meant to show We sit with words that don’t feel right And try to turn them toward the light Sometimes I wonder as we start If something shifts inside the art If it begins with a transaction Does it lose a little fraction Of the quiet, sacred spark That first flickered in the dark? Can my song still be meaningful If it’s part of something paid for? Or is it simply what we do To help a fragile thing come through? They say a song should stand alone That truth is best when grown at home But singers train and runners fall And no one learns without a call Even healers seek a guide When doubt is heavy at their side So why should music be the one That must be born from only one? Still it lingers in my chest That small uneasiness at rest If it begins with a transaction Does it dull the first reaction? Or is payment just a frame For tending carefully a flame? Is the spark diminished there Or simply handled with more care? Maybe money isn’t sin Just the door we’re entering Some say the truest songs are free Wolves howling endlessly Or orcas calling through the sea Wind chimes stirred by mystery But wolves don’t wonder if they’re heard And whales don’t weigh a single word They sing because they have to sing Not asking what the cost might bring If it begins with a transaction Maybe that’s just human action We trade our hours, trade our skill To help each other climb a hill Maybe art is still as true When someone walks the path with you And maybe grace is not undone By how the work is finally done So I slide the envelope once more Pull out my rough draft as before And somewhere in the give and take A better song begins to wake$

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