New Year's Day

I don't cry when they find each other in the movie
I don't cry when the patriarch makes his gratitude speech over a baked turkey carcass
I don't cry as another candle is lit and the song sung
I don't cry when children bake cookies and lay out carrots for reindeer

I cry when thousands cheered, unceasingly, as Mandela left prison
I cry when Lynn Stewart walks off the plane, and out of jail
I cry when their struggle represents all of our struggle
I cry because they know a taste of freedom, and through them, so do I

I don't understand partying at the end
Why is New Year's Eve the exciting moment?
For me, when dawn breaks on New Year's Day
I feel renewed.
The light returns, the potential is here.

Why celebrate the end, the nostalgic, the sentimental,
the reflection?  Why not save your energy
for what we create in our cauldron of revolution.
Tend the flame, feed the stew your tears.
I cry at the realization of our own unbreakable power.
I cry knowing that we rise like the sun.