January from Domestic by Paul Armfield

January first
My new year's resolution is to learn the second verse of Auld Lang Syne
Broken by the third
In the time it takes to show the door to Old Father Time
Pushing off from old Lands End
Raise a toast to absent friends

Poised above the soil
The blade, the spade, the good-intentioned resolutions fall
To be jolted, jounced and jarred
As the frozen earth's resistance sees you gather up the seeds
Head back indoors
Just off the coast of Finisterre
Setting sail for who knows where

Clothes damp with the melting snow
Dream your dreams of Capistrano
Stoke the stove and plump the sofa
Follow where the swallows go
January blows in cold
Wind chill makes it even colder
Through the hollows of your bones
Chills the blood and turns the soul to ice
The colours drain out of the day
And all that interrupts the grey
Are January blues

The blank space on the wall
As from calendar to calendar we carbon-copy all
Just to find ourselves once more
In the flyleaves and the end-papers of every book we've ever read before
Hoisting sails hand over hand
Set a course for Newfoundland

For the sake of auld lang syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot

• Folk
• singer-songwriter
• United Kingdom