Originally posted 12/31/2009.
They’re working on race cars in Charlotte,
baseball bats in Louisville,
beer in breweries coast to coast
and logo T-shirts in Singapore.
It’s the day of New Year’s Eve
and not much is going to change
in the world tonight.
We only think
we write the music
time dances to.
Someday a hibernating creature
is going to wake up from the winter
and we’ll be gone.
It won’t notice anything different except
an increased freedom to be itself.
No engines will roar, no baseballs will soar,
and the only drunkenness will come
when wasps suck the fermented sap
from fallen pears.
Everything left alive
will be naked, nothing
will happen as a result,
and we’ll be regretted
only as much
as Creation regrets
any other extinction,
which is to say,
not at all.
Something still alive
will begin to dance
on the melody-free earth.
Dark Matter 
January 2nd, 2015 at 11:09 am
We only think we write the music time dances to. Absolutely love that…..ain’t it the truth, Ruth!
January 2nd, 2015 at 11:15 am
I see it as dipping a finger in a great lake….makes a tiny almost imperceptible ripple or two. When your finger is taken out…….can’t tell it was ever there. Best can hope for is enjoying the lake while you’re in it and maybe get an Asian manicure by the fishes. New Year’s and everyday resolution: laugh more, particularly at myself.
January 2nd, 2015 at 2:37 am
“We write the music time dances to.” Wow! That is definitely a prompt for a poem! I hope you don’t mind if I ‘borrow’ it? It wouldn’t be the first you have inspired.
Bonne année et bonne santé! Léa
January 2nd, 2015 at 2:39 am
Of course and thank you!
January 2nd, 2015 at 2:45 am
Merci beaucoup!