Resolutions Now and Then

NaPoWriMo April 29: In “After Turning the Clocks Back,” Jennifer Moxley links present with past, using a few well-placed details to invoke both a sense of the daily “now” and a nostalgic sense of the speaker’s long-ago life. In your poem today, similarly compare your everyday present life with your past self, using specific details to conjure aspects of your past and present in the reader’s mind.

It may seem out of sync to be writing about New Year’s resolutions in April, but I like to plan ahead—especially when I’m asked to look back.

Resolutions Now and Then
by Elizabeth Boquet

Used to be, New Year’s Eve was for drunken revelry.
I never thought to interrogate the next candidate
who would enumerate my next year of life—or demise.

At the strike of twelve, I’d be in no state to make
a resolution and would embrace come what may.
But I never considered cancer might crash my bash.

Next time, you won’t find me slumped drunk; I’ll stand
as tall as I can and look right in New Year’s midnight eye.
We’ll shake hands on a deal to live it up and rave away.

Photo by Matt Hoffman on Unsplash