Continual

The new year drags them forward:
ills, unfinished chores,
the worry and the doubt.
There is no starting over; it's about
the debts that last year left us;
that is what we shoulder
as we take a breath,
a step,
and then another. January watches
as we turn from celebration to the night,
carrying, like a candle’s flame, resolve,
because there is no other choice,
to find and follow the old road
toward uncertain light.

January 1 2020