And if we sit around
reading books all day,
one day a year,
what does it matter?

And if we lost our equilibrium
for one long moment,
if we yelled and screamed
and said unrepeatable things
to someone who won’t remember,
does it matter?

We woke up this morning feeling good,
feeling close, well rested, well connected.
Later, we felt the weight
of our responsibility to save the world
through the concentration of our best thoughts,
but that passed quickly,
overtaken by a story in a book
and the putting aside
of most everything present

I may pick it up again
with the grave attention it deserves:
tomorrow gives us another chance.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 1, 2017