POEM/FREE VERSE/TRANSFORMATION
New Year’s Eve, 1958
A pre-conscious musing
Author’s note: It’s January, so new beginnings are on my mind. I’m at the time in life where new beginnings are few and far between and I wonder how many are left in my bag of tricks. So, I decided to go back to the beginning, when all my options were open, and touch on the other stages I’ve either been through as well as those I have yet to experience.
No doubt the clocks struck twelve that night
Lovers kissed
Dime store noisemakers rattled and blew
As Guy Lombardo played the Scottish song
Drowned out by kids with pots and pans
Whooping it up on doorsteps in the frigid air
Old dears up past their bedtimes by a mile
Sat in corner chairs, eyes distant
Seeing the unseen
Lost boys and absent friends
The Gibson Girls they were
Forever altered
Cheeks damp with errant tears
I’m sure it’s so, although
My eyes were closed
Floating as I was
In a warm, wet womb
Rockabyed by heartbeats
With nary an itch or an inkling
Of what was to come
When my world went wide in summer
©2024 Denise Shelton. All rights reserved.
American writer with dual Irish citizenship living in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
