The Messenger

Many are the reasons I can find to grieve
The changing of the seasons, the turning of the leaves
The way it will be freezing and with no reprieve
Unhappiness is treason, another New Year’s Eve 

So I check the calendar and I bid the year farewell
Time is just the messenger, it’s not the news itself

Time is not the enemy, at times I wish it were
Nor is it a friend to me, it’s just the messenger 

Last night I had a vision of faces in Times Square
Of frozen apparitions that hovered in the air
December’s a condition impossible to share
A desolate affliction that follows everywhere 

So I check the temperature and I bid the sun farewell
Time is just the messenger, it’s not the news itself 

I walk the halls, I climb the stairs, into the room of a thousand doorways
I try them all but go nowhere, there’s no forward or back, just sideways

Now my dreams have been deferred so I bid them all farewell
Time is just the messenger, it’s not the news itself