New Year’s Eve, 2021

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                    Seaview, WA

Night arrives as light pulls off these meridians

the year’s final hours. Some stray rays linger,

hold at bay the looming archival lever. Past the dunes,

a coastal grove — cypress, possibly spruce —

glimmers as flash-lit lovers flit through.

Fireside the inn’s lamplit parlor,

I watch what moves & what’s still.

Above the mantle, a mountain goat idles cliffside

while halted clouds thicken the backdrop,

neither displacing nor yielding to good weather.

In the electric fire’s continuous roar, unburnt logs

dissimulate entropy. Time’s impasse resolves

in pushpin stilling. Under the holiday tree

a crimson toy train,

arrived, sits front wheel derailed, won’t depart.

The year abates imperceptibly into its next.

The year abates imperceptibly into its next.

Arrived, sits front wheel derailed, won’t depart.

A crimson toy train,

in pushpin stilling under the holiday tree

dissimulates entropy. Time’s impasse resolves

in the electric fire’s continuous roar, unburnt logs

neither displacing nor yielding to good weather

while halted clouds thicken the backdrop.

Above the mantle, a mountain goat idles cliffside;

I watch what moves & what’s still.

Fireside, the inn’s lamplit parlor

glimmers as flash-lit lovers flit through.

A coastal grove — cypress, possibly spruce —

holds at bay the looming archival lever. Past the dunes,

the year’s final hours, some stray rays linger.

Night arrives as light pulls off these meridians.