New Year

We give birth in a bloodbath 
A bloodshot sun glares 
At bites and scratches 
On parched lands 
Tramped upon by the millions 
Rejoicing the beginning of a new era. 

 Only young blood is spilt here 
Hot and impassioned with wrath 
It is the only kind of blood that boils and bubbles 
In our test tube babies 
For we create clones of our expectations 
And shatter them as we fail to live up to them. 

 As the salted waters rise again 
To rinse the healing sun 
Heads bend in furious prayer 
To eclipse the terror of an end 
And procrastinate living 
Till another night, 
Another starless dream sequence, 
Another heady daze 
Another maybe, another might. 

 Eyes rubbed and rubbed and rubbed again 
Set with a bloodied sun 
Shards glisten, 
Weeping clouds that could have been 
To mask the hurt of howls and hyenas 
All settle now under a shroud 
Till another morning, 
Another dew-soaked dawn, 
Another lukewarm warning, 
Another blood-soaked response.