NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1988


Today is the first of nineteen eighty-eight,
A year we all hope will be something great
Although for me eighty-seven was first rate.

Ask me if I stayed up to celebrate
The introduction of this special date
And I will answer that it was not very late
When I went to bed without a mate.

Nor did I lie awake to meditate
About the difference between love and hate
However at midnight others did initiate
A noise loud enough to penetrate
The dreams I had begun to orchestrate.

And of course in my mind I had to commemorate
Other New Year's Eves to which I could relate
Some in a cold which would certainly invigorate
And others, to tell you this I hesitate,
On which I became a real inebriate
With a morning headache that I cannot demonstrate.

And I remembered as a kid I could hardly wait
For the music that moved from state to state
Tunes from every radio seemed to radiate
From great bands which chose to cooperate
But soon my mother would become irate
And my listening she would regulate
Without needing anyone to mediate.

Well, once again words I have tried to manipulate
With rhymes that easily emanate
To give you some pleasure when I communicate
And also, in a fashion, to narrate
But now it is difficult to formulate
Other lines that would exhilarate
So only one more will I enunciate
With you another year I wish to participate!