​POETRY  
 
".  .  .  like we had some Big Thing to celebrate."
                                   Photo by Weebly.com                                    
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New Year's Eve "Rap"
(Meant to be read "rap style")
by Dennis Sides

​​The Big Wheel of Time does wheeze to a stop.
We gaze for miles from on high up top.
Fireworks light the sky like we had some Big Thing
to celebrate. Gee . . . always Auld Lang Syne to sing.
We anticipate, wait for that Big Ball to drop
into a cup o’ kindness. But we’re just too mindless.
The future’s timeless, but hidden from view.
We look down, review the year, what we’ve done,
what might come, hope it won’t be troublesome.
We’re just strangers in a strange land, dancing
as we kill the planet beneath our feet. No one standing
can bequeath us a future—who’d believe us, anyway,
swearing we did our best? Maybe it’s all Vegas, baby,
slap your money down, let that Big Wheel spin—round
and round she goes—where the world stops, nobody knows.
Midnight strikes, wipes the slate, confetti blizzard fills
the sky and settles like snow, muffles the chaos below.
Forests are burning, climates are churning, air and
water worse, and the tables are turning against us all.
We’re running in the human race, but now a slower pace.
Maybe we’ll lose, because we wouldn’t choose to pay
to clean up the mess. If money makes the world go around,
who will buy us one last round? Thoughts and prayers
will never save our only home sweet home, can’t you see?
If we just let it be, we’re all gonna cry my country’s tears for thee.
Come dawn, last night will be the last night of our past lives.
It’s not too late, unless we hesitate, so quit the shuck and jive.
Square it with the planet, dammit. Plan it! Don’t turn the other
cheek, and meekly squeak, “Next year we’ll do better, Mother.”
“Honest. . ..”
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​​Dennis Sides has been a software developer, book editor, professional musician, construction project manager, tech writer, and world traveler. He's hung up his traveling shoes during covid, but hopes to get back out on the road soon. He's lived in the Fillmore long enough to qualify for "San Francisco native" status.
Other works in this issue:
Poetry:
A Walk in the Woods


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Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by members of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State University​.​
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