New Year’s Day!  
Nemesis, advisor,
my saber-tooth,
my cave bear;
  
my always-brutal lover offering once again
to hug me home, whispering,  “Hurry!  
I can’t clean up the wreckage
you’ve left behind, but I will take you in.”  

I break loose and try to run —
old bear, long estranged,
how did you find me?
How long has it been?

New Year’s Day!  I have dreaded you
as I might dread seeing
signs of an end-stage cancer
bound to kill me.

Now I see how empty
your mean hands truly are.
Embrace me, I will embrace you
for a day;  I’ll give you

twenty four hours of honor,
let you bite me, let you open
all your favorite wounds; then,
I will break your hold

and snake my way past you
toward whatever is beyond you.
New Year’s Day!  Do your worst.
You’re just one day of chastisement 

in a life of interchangeable
blessings and curses, drawing blood
once a year, reminding me of how far
I haven’t come from the last time we kissed. 

That hawk
you are determined to fetishize

has no interest in carrying
your symbolism or the past life biography

your plastic shaman
of the moment gave you.  

All she wants is a fat mouse in her fist,
a quick meal, and after that

the cold,
welcoming sky.  You

can do whatever you want
as long as you keep your distance.

Forget the gas bill
for one moment —

open the window.
It’s two days after Christmas 

and a storm’s coming. So what?
We’re in the week between, the week

of supernatural letdown — gifts
broken, disillusionment setting in,

panic arriving ahead of the New Year,
long, long January and February

stretching out gray before us.  So what?
Open the window and let the cold in.

Let in the riotous air that swoops and dives
before a storm.  Let it in and see what it stirs

in your stale rooms — don’t you ever get tired
of being in here?  If you’re not going out

then get the out into your in and maybe
this year will be different and you’ll see the seasons

everywhere, not just on
a screen or through imprisoning glass. But

you’ve got to start somewhere.  Open
the window.  Get cold.  Get ready.