brain a whorl of swirling fish

A new year coming up...crawling bloody up out of a ditch...it finally beat the big brute of 2005. Hooray! I say..."2005, hurry up and die". What a wretched year. What with the Tsunami and Katrina, it's a wonder we don't all fall out of our beds dream-fighting the pull of water that threatens to drown us and fill our mouths with disease. Many deaths among my friends and family this year. A few beatings. heartbreaks. illness..bodies that refuse to heal. I'm remembering what joy can be, a shine in the fog that only I can see, I'm sweating off this melted snow and looking for the future instead of the past in my tea leaves. I hope my beautiful family finds footing again. Maybe Rome wasn't built in a day, but Rome wasn't New Orleans. I'm smiling again, pulling up my sleeves, looking in the mirror and asking that well-meaning girl: "allright, you tired asshole, where the hell shall we start?"