The Mad Poet of the Year blog posts share the poetry of a long-time Mad Poet. This year-long appointment provides readers with a deep dive of the writer’s work and thoughts on poetry. We are thrilled to have R. G. Evans serve as the Mad Poet of the Year for 2022.
THE YEAR IN GOODBYES
by R.G. Evans
Poor Father Time. Every year kicks his ass.
He comes in fresh with his little sash
like a Best Baby Contest winner,
but leaves broken and bearded,
turning his hunched back
on the babe sent in to take his place.
That’s all we ever see.
The coming. The going.
The geezer and the babe.
What of the rest of the year?
The toddler in February
playing catch with Cupid’s darts.
The “whining schoolboy” of March,
praying the longest month will end.
The horny lad of spring,
flirting with April and May.
But he’s more than just the calendar.
Like us, all his lives are different.
He can feel a month’s headlines
in his arthritic knees.
Global news gives him lumbago.
Oh, and what some elections
do to his hemorrhoids.
When the whole thing winds down--
top 10 lists, the year in review and in goodbyes--
he looks back as well
at that apple-cheeked cherub
born in ignorance and hope, still
able to dream without meds.
There’s a knock at Father’s door.
On the other side, the new babe is waiting.
Some tongues,he knows,
have the same word for hello and goodbye.
How easily, he thinks, that sash
could become a garotte.
He and the innocent exchange a glance,
one of them suddenly lost in translation.
The media uses New Year’s Eve/Day to provide retrospectives of the past year’s events. Several years ago, I read of the year’s celebrity obituaries under the headline “The Year in Goodbyes.” That headline combined with a little tinkering with the figures of Father Time and Baby New Year, and voila!, this poem, which appears in my book Imagine Sisyphus Happy, was born.
R.G. Evans’s books include Overtipping the Ferryman (Aldrich Poetry Press Prize), The Holy Both, and Imagine Sisyphus Happy. His original songs were featured in the poetry documentaries All That Lies Between Us and Unburying Malcolm Miller, and his collection of original songs, Sweet Old Life, is available on most streaming platforms. Evans teaches creative writing at Rowan University. Website: www.rgevanswriter.com