The year ahead 2023

I look eagerly at this new, blank page –
not with hope,
as I left hope back in 2019 or before;
not with a plan to change myself
or my life.
I do not yet know where I am going this year
and whether it will be willingly.

I look at this new, blank page
2023
with the hunger of a writer
who has scribbled ideas, drafts, lists
plotting diagrams
and fragments of dialogue
on both sides of the year now past.
I’ve turned my page sideways,
crossed the writing,
filled every line without margin

and now I am ready for a new sheet
of clean, unmarked paper

Stef Rozitis is a high school teacher in Australia. They have 3 adult children and therefore desperately hope that our species begin to work together to save this planet. Read other articles by Stef.