“Wish you
a very happy new year”—
declared the lurid signboards
hanging by the roadside.

The same words echoed—
through cell phones,
on television screens,
in newspapers and magazines,
woven into grand stories
of the old and the new,
welcoming New Year.

Historians,
researchers,
speakers,
even poets—
emerged from their solitude,
carefully prepared,
announcing
the world’s progress,
its changes, its triumphs.

And so, it moves forward—
sometimes happy,
sometimes sad—
on a long and bewildering path—
a journey
from January to December.