on repetition: new years day …

the years have chased,
cajoled,
time has a-rambled & a-rolled,
just another year,
where loves’ wares,

love, the commodity,
and us, all of us,
mere commodities,
traded as futures,

hastily stitching gaping wounds, with superficially strong sutures,

add some smiles bought and sold,
dignity bartered,
amalgamated, merged, lost & battered,

thin skins moulting,
spawning breathing thicker skins,

just another year,
same dreams to be shattered,

no bleating hip-hip-hoorays,
just the ever-fixed smile,

bright teeth bared as hands morph into machetes, hacking,
gleefully as the beast slays,

and while some burn, the fireworks elicit oohs, many an aah,

with kafka in the shadows, shaking his head,
this is farce gone too far,

to dampen the collective hope,

not more crumbled platitudes,
meant only to soothe, to apply the balm, to help the other half cope,

with what,

just another year,
reborn, the umbilical cord cut,

just another year,
working, eating, buying, buying,

as we scamper ever on,
with our eyes sewn tightly shut