New Year by W.C. Wampler
There was the “year of confusion”
46 B.C., 445 days long.
That was Julius Caesar’s solution
to calendars going wrong.
Days were light, nights were dark,
months were a guess at the moon.
Even hours were a shadow from mark to mark,
no shadow for somebody’s noon.
J.C.’s astrologers, uncanny with math,
designed a year to the day,
and in the “Year of confusion’s” aftermath,
Julian calendar became the way.
But something was still going wrong,
and the seasons continued to change.
Discrepancy couldn’t go on for long,
some details got rearranged.
In the 1500’s, Pope Gregory XIII
recalculated the leap year dates.
Adapted, adopted, Gregorian began,
still going on as of late.
They kept Janus, the spirit of doors,
to guard the passage between.
Why they started in mid winter’s course,
is an answer I just haven’t seen.
Now, we all know that the sun doesn’t rise,
nor does the sun go down.
It’s we who turn from the sun’s fiery eyes,
as we spin in our orbit around.
Yet if I want to see you, I want to meet you,
get together again,
there’s two things we have to agree to,
not only where, but when.
Oh calendar year,
how very arbitrary you are.
Time is no clock, Time has no gear.
Is the thought of one day too bizarre?
It is what is. Let’s not forget,
but we still want to line up future, present, and past.
So we choose a calendar, stick with it,
and we name this new year,
not the first, nor the last.