Feelings: Sitting Here, Start New Year Poem by Margaret Alice

As I’m sitting here
thinking of my fears
I remember the real
reason for my tears:

At work a new threat
has arisen to haunt me
nightly in my dreams –
we are going to be sent

on a course for financial
management – ye gods, my
nemesis is arithmetic!
and at home a school project

looms: entrepreneurial
prowess of my twelve-year
old; with budget and
planning and selling

a product of our own choice
I spent a night crying
sad, crocodile tears, but
you simply said grin and

bear it, in a voice most
unsympathetic, you shall
profit immensely by becoming
a real financial whiz!

Mr Mohapi also insists
one’s intellectual property
should be guarded and sold
- while I want to give away

all my happiest thoughts;
Poetry.com demands a king’s
ransom of popularity votes
for every word that appears

I’ll have to resort to crying
some more crocodile tears
to relieve my feelings
and lighten the burden

weighing heavily on my
crocodile-heart…

Start A New Year

I thought I had bypassed the phase of fear
that accompanies my return to work annually
although I should have known that after a
sleepless night, problems were bound to
appear

But I never expected that my light would go
out completely, that I would lose my first two
documents - lose my self-confidence until I
felt such a fool – without the light shining
in me

All was dark and threatening; my first day
was not a comedy, but ended up like the
first act in an absurd play – now I openly
admit I am not able to start a new year
without fear…