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New Year
by Indiana Pehlivanova '09
"For Bono (after Kite)"

If this year were a name
It would have had only one
Consonant, Apo -- late blossoming
Name belonging to a child
Letting go a name
A name as a locked book

If this year were a car
It would have had one eternal meter
It would have been repainted
With so many colors on top of each other
It would have become beige

The beige sail bags I lay on
To watch people cross the road
In the early afternoon

If this year were an animal
It would have been sleeping
In gravel, sprinkled with poison ivy
It would have been one with
Discolored irises, one saved, one last
One quiet as river water

When the fog is to my knees
I run forwards to catch
Never realizing I've caught it
Before so many times and my fingertips
Have gotten used to it

I draw this year on a map
I follow the pencil traces
Those are rocky mountains