<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Another Happy New Year</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">The party's done, the plastic cups used up -</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">the ones we never know whether to wash or throw away -</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">thus </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">ambivalence follows us </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">into the new year</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">starting with the cups. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The food </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">my mother's crab mousse </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">so fifties in flavor</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">even the punch </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">a throwback to simpler days</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">when three kinds of sweet liquids </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">mixed together </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">did not make us quake </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">with fear of the consequences.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">big resolutions</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">mostly the same </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">again and again</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">yet each year </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I grow calmer</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">finding a still point </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">amidst the tumult </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">holding on </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">to the quicksilver </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">river of my dreams.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">There is that cleansed feeling -</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">the counters bare of the detritus of the year</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">extraneous magazines never read now ready </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">to be trash </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">which we euphemistically call </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">recycle - as if we weren’t wasting </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">so much paper.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">As for resolutions - make ones that are doable.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The pen falls and the mind falters.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">More than resolutions </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">how about reflecting – </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">have I become more me? that is all I ask.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And I respond to welcome the new year </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">with this poem.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- </span><span style="text-indent: 36px;" class="">Basha/Barbara Hirschfeld</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 216px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 216px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(26, 26, 26);" class=""><br class=""></div></div></body></html>