A Year In The Life

There will be some this year who will remember
The sixteenth of this month
not as the day general election results came out
but as a long phone conversation from an airport departure lounge;
a friend leaves.

There will be some this year who will recall
running down the streets of Rome and jumping
fully clothed
into the Trevi fountain;
Even if you support ManYoo, who cares,
just take off your scarf and yell for Barca.

There will be some this year who will remember
the Sixth Pay Commission, some who will remember only
Sending money to sons in Europe
Sons with a taste for expensive wines.

There will be some this year who will not remember their age
when they were married off
(at thirteen, fourteen) to boys far away,
but will remember that puberty had set in already,
and so the young bride had no betrothal period,
But was sent off to her new home soon enough.

There will be some who will remember this year as the year
of finishing.
Finishing college, finishing off ties to a city that no longer exists
as home.

There will be some this year, like every year,
who when asked when they last held a baby,
will not have to think back,
but only look over their shoulder to see
new years.