Merry-Go-Round 12-31 Poem by Adam Hoagland

The New Year's oft depicted on the page
the same way every time in comic panes.
A spent curmudgeon vacating the stage,
to let the newborn babe assume the reins.
The symbolism isn't too profound:
Forget the old; embrace the chance for change.
And yet to him forlornness clenches bound,
the metaphor becomes a tad more strange.
From here, the stagnant geezer gets replaced
by more old men, with no fresh youth in sight,
as though they rode a carousel of waste
and by renewed chagrin took their delight.
Their numbered banners flapping in the breeze;
Their scythes a whirling sword of Damocles.

(ARH 12/31/09)