Albert Kapikian: New Year's Eve

Tonight is for the way we rush
in lingering, looking back
at the blasting furnace of hopes
that is the year just past
for the way we transmute them
into the papier mâché stars
dangling in the dance halls
and hotel bars

tonight is for the way
it all begins again
in candlelight
over dinner, dancing with friends

for the way we become figures of imagination
again, waiting to come true in the coming year




This poem has appeared in the Summer 1999 issue of "The Ledge"