New Year,
resolutions rising from reverie
running outdoors with a smile
singing and skipping
into very concrete streets

resolve to pay credit card bills, student loans, interest on interest,
visit sister and mother at last, drive a little slower
stop drinking, drink slower, wear a jacket, find a new apartment
stop arguing, stop swearing, learn to say I love you, find a new show to soothe
find something not political, a little less political,
stop making Hitler comparisons

of course, there’s always a car coming
how do we keep the resolutions
from being run down
wounded again
and carted away on a stretcher
covered in full

how can we add instead of subtract
and get the right answers.
how can we streamline superfluous services
without losing more soul
and how the hell can we laugh
without becoming drunken idiots on a Saturday night

why can’t one resolution cross the street
and come home?