Happy New Year! - A Poem by Patty Mooney

Early January
all millennium items half off
at Sav-On. A plush yellow
happy face with body and
bowler hat beckons you, takes two
Double D batteries. When jostled
like an infant it shudders.
In an Aussie child's voice:
"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six!
Five! Four! Three! Two! One!
Welcome to the year 2000!"
Fireworks and Auld Lang Syne
fuel orgasmic swan song gyrations.
Then, still, silent. Just a happy face.
You buy it for me as a reminder
of today together.

July 4th the boys toss it around
like a football. Batteries are still
going strong. The Aussie child
welcomes all to the new millennium,
fireworks shrilling. Something
about this canned ebullience
brings back the moment
you handed me the happy face,
mother to daughter,
the passing of a torch.