In The Menu That Dawn Brought With Her Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

In the menu that Dawn brought with her
For to-day New Year's Day there was
the special and the not so special:
Special rang the tunes of the church bells
different from other holidays:
overdue after all!
New Year's Day!
But the old city dressed as it had dressed
the day before
and the day before that
and before that for centuries
old in the memories of ancient times:
and the people
who survived into the New Year survived
either as flesh or blood or else as ghosts
the former in the morning streets
the latter in the Night swarmed
to the old town in hordes and shrouds
and there rose high a long sad lament
an All in One, and One in All
to the sad heavens and stars.