Ends of Years

(Recycled ceremonials)

In what we
need believe
when
at the diary’s
last page
arriving
counting
begins
again.
In the end
in the beginning
in the beginning
in the end
Time
contracting
Time
reacting
Ceremony
exacting
Spirits
extracting
Eulogies
for sins unsung
Apologies
for kindness undone
Seasons greetings
scrape every year
the mortal vessel
with anger and fear.
In what
we believe
arriving
counting
the wages of pain
on the pages
again.

Dr T.P. Wilkinson writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is also the author of Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..