New Year

New Year

With each new year
we celebrate and cheer.
Orange swirls, red dots, 
yellow explosions
light up the dark
but what is it for?
Another year that is over
or a new one about to begin?
Do we celebrate in hope or in fear? 
As we sit atop the cliff of a year 
we see a sheer

drop 

and below an unseen ocean that smiles with a leer
for beneath, sharp rocks may lurk or a tide unforgiving
preparing to smash us, pummelled to the sandy floor.
But when the morning breaks,
the drop may not be so tall
and with curiosity we may fall
into a still blue that may call
us in to its depths, ready to explore.

Rocketing to the sky, colours explode
into a million impermanent stars
lighting up the dark for brief, beautiful moments. 
Gasps pour from the onlookers, their chins dropped, mouths wide.
5, 4, 3 ...
The ball drops in New York, the Eye explodes in London,
The Opera House in Australia, the World falls and explodes
into celebration.
... 2, 1
Is this a beginning or an ending?