Monday, January 5, 2009

Cogitating the New Year

We calibrate time,
Imagine temporal structures,
And celebrate the New Year,
Welcoming the sweet misery of life,
Measuring months, weeks and days,
Converting them
Into an expectant whole and
In elation or despair,
Enter the etesian time zone
At the stroke of twelve;
Believing that the cog
Has served its purpose.

We miss the seasons,
The fog on the mountains,
The sunshine on the rooftops,
The dark corridors of our fantasy,
The quiet contemplation of the mind,
The snow footprints of the badger,
The fluttering of the cicada,
The bespattered maple leaf,
The budding branch,
Our very heartbeat itself;
Life passes us by and yet
We look for virtue in chronology.

We seek the New Year
In a department store
In cheap bargains,
Steam ejecting gadgets,
Discounted apparel, foundation cosmetics,
Stuffed toys, plastic insects,
Imitation shrubbery,
Tinsel, doodads,
Chocolates and pasties,
To sweeten our choice;
We wish to seize the celestial universe
In pretentious artifice.

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