It Happens in a Different Year

Leaving the old calendar page up halfway through the new month
Blowing the smoke out the bathroom window
Using up the last thirty pages of a notebook
Keeping your jacket on while watching a play

Staying awake so long you feel like you have the flu
Trying to find that short story about cleaning office buildings at night
Moving old notes into a different box without rereading them
Walking someone out to their car and then coming back inside

Reading the Wikipedia page on Psychological Theories of Love
Wearing down your bootsoles on the outside edge only
Harboring an unconscious superstition
Watching seagulls and crows shout in a parking lot

Listening to every live recording of a single Jeff Buckley song
Walking for forty minutes even though the buses are still running
Growing your hair out based on a misguided impulse
Watching flint-knapping tutorials on Youtube

Sitting on the edge of the bed with your shoes on until it’s time to leave
Talking with a tall heterosexual acquaintance on the back porch
Writing down something about the sky and forgetting it forever
Sleeping in your childhood bedroom with the furniture rearranged

Kicking a pinecone as you walk until it rolls away into the grass
Changing the way you say goodbye to someone
Correctly remembering which street you turned down
Telling a story with fewer and fewer words every time

Gradually losing track of your black t-shirts
Being reminded of something you don’t say anymore
Leaving the lights off and opening the blinds
Visiting the lake during winter

Thinking about someone while in a place they’ve never been
Thinking about someone while in a place they used to be

Waiting for an uncertain season to change