Question

What is the metaphor in the third stanza - what does the speaker mean?

Indian Boy Love Song (#2)


I never spoke
the language
of the old woman

visiting my mother
in winters so cold
they could freeze
the tongue whole.

I never held my head
to their thin chests
believing in the heart.

Indian women, forgive me.
I grew up distant
and always afraid.

Answer 1

the metaphore in stanza three is winter so cold they could freeze a

tongue whole