this year
they said on the news
that 2008 would be a second longer
I wonder if anyone told the Man in the Moon
or Venus bejewelled beside him
majestic in pitch black eons
of space and time

inside by the turf fire
as we await a new year
that is already old to others
I think of hearthsides past
when those no longer here
were there
it brings not sadness to me
but the fellowship of past joys
and present memory

out in the garden as the sirens blare
in the new year
trepidation runs through me
as my mum used to say
like someone walking over my grave
who knows
but I know
we know
the world can be better

let us make it shine
as Venus
in a bristling December night
of frost
and a January morning
of hope

01/01/2009