Resolutions

Resolutions

New Year’s Eve, 2019

It’s time for resolutions now—

The end of one more year.

So gather up your weaknesses

And draw them very near.

Examine them! Identify

Each one that holds you back.

Look for its varied cracks and flaws—

And plan your new attack.

Reject them all! Yes, banish them!

And purify your ways!

And maybe they will stay away

For—who knows?—several days?

Our love of overeating? Well,

It’s hard to conquer that.

We stop it cold—for several days—

And then that love of Fat

Comes back with its friend Sugar to

Assail our feeble wish

That we could just ignore dessert

(My very favorite dish!).

And exercise? Let’s hit the club!

Let’s heave and sigh and sweat!

And then go home and hit the fridge—

Perhaps a cigarette?

And cruelty? We’ve sent it off

To some far distant land—

Until we find we need it—so

We keep it close at hand.

Those other self-destructive things

That we have sworn to end?

We learn that on the Road of Life

They’re just around the bend.

So will we be a failure just

A few short days from now?

Oh, no, we are just human—

So we’ll struggle on somehow.

Our struggle will continue with

Our demons and our foes—

And we’ll keep trying, failing—

But persisting to oppose

What we well know are weaknesses

That make us less than we

Could be if we could liberate

The best in you and me.

So—greatest luck to all of us

As one more year arrives—

A time to hope and to resolve

That just our best survives.

And when the next year’s evanesced,

We’ll face ourselves again.

My fondest wish for all of us?

We’re better than we’ve been.