Song for the New Year

As for 2006, so for 2007...

Another year is marching through the door,
I do not have the weapons for war,
I've never felt so unprepared before,
As I stumble on.

So many years I've left in my wake,
So many chances I've failed to take,
What difference then will one more make,
As I stumble on?

Happy New Year, it's almost here,
But I feel no gladness; only fear,
I'm just waiting now for the smoke to clear,
As I stumble on.

But then that voice- soft yet clear,
"I will heal each wound and dry each tear,
Stick with Me son, you'll have nothing to fear,
I will lead you on."

"You've stumbled your way through life before,
You don't have to stumble anymore,
Don't worry about the battles, I've won the war,
And I will lead you on."

Happy New Year 2007

Tonight

As a child I believed
you could hear the sea in a shell;
Now a cupped hand does the job
just as well-
it’s too cold to venture out tonight.

Tonight
everything seems de-romanticized,
I stand stripped of wonder.
The more you know, the more you wish
you didn't.

Snap crackle pop
words stop
to make way for a passing thought.

Tonight
my pine scented candle burns down,
mixes with cheap potpourri,
teases my throbbing sinuses.
A painful reminder of a careless late shower.

Darkness encroaches on the flame
a little sputter,
a final wheeze,
and then it’s gone.
The shadows die a silent death.

Tonight
I pine for my family.
Ten thousand miles away
my mum sneezes.

In the stillness the phone rings
three times.
I pick it up, put it down and draw the blinds
Tonight is for silence.