DAWN OF THE NEW YEAR (April Contest)

I sit and shiver in the dark
awaiting this year's first new day
bathed in starlight cold and stark
as the old year quietly slips away
...My thoughts wander as I wait

The silence gives me room to brood
about the last year's fails and foibles
and the wrinkles I've accrued
from twelve more months' toils and troubles
...My breath fogs as I contemplate

A coyote mourns on a far ridge
as sickle moon sets in the west
in a sky as chill as in a fridge
in a world in which I'm a mere guest
...Perhaps the brush wolf calls his mate.

In the east the darkness fades.
the sky turns slowly black to gray.
Details appear in nearby glades;
the last of last year fades away.
...like all the others, lost to fate.

Time falls through another cataract
toward lands where aging memories dwell.
Yesterday can never be brought back
any more than the tide's swell
...it wears men like a kitchen grate.

I look down on my worn coat's sleeve
and see a spot from a sun spear
joining others weaving through limbs' sieve.
As sun rises, shadows appear
...and day's hours accumulate

Which turns my thoughts to days to come
away from the past now set in stone
another number added to the sum,
Thoughts best considered when alone.
...now making my brood hesitate.

Sunlight soon floods this lonely hill
bridging the night and day's dim schism
and as a new day often will
it shifts my mood to optimism
...and I 'm prepared to meet my coming fate.