Raised Voices of the New Year

The party across the street is still going on full-tllt at 7:00 in the morning! People are screaming and singing in loud voices, albeit off-key. Is this an honest declaration of joy at the coming of the new year and the renewal of the resolutions unaccomplished in the old one, or simply drunken joy at the first rays of sun that will soon conquer the somewhat frigid air to start out the new year? Will our vision be clearer in this year labeled 2020? Will our choices be nobler and less self-serving? Will we make an honest effort to bring the world along with us in our quest for prosperity?

I roll over to seek a few more hours sleep. The party has gone dormant—perhaps to open a new bottle or to put the children to bed at last. I lie suspended in the suspense of when it will flare forth again. How can something that percussive be stilled so quickly? I count off the seconds until the next shouted expression of life. And I am not disappointed. A single maestro of tequila-augmented song lifts his voice if not his baton and the crowd roars to life again. They have renewed the drums!

“I’ll sleep tomorrow,” I vow as i pull a pillow over each ear and belie the statement already, striving for a few more hours sleep. Happy 2020!!! May both our vision and our actions be clearer and finer in the air of this unblemished new year. 

Word prompts today are frigid, honest, renewal, declaration and first.