Pumping iron has the power to lift my spirits

Happy New Year 2026

There is no New Year’s Resolution at the gym

As I pull 125 pounds down to my chest

Straining against the passage of time,

Only the creak of my elbows in the wake of a dateline.

In my head, I do not think

About the new body I might build

As I’m still working on the old one. Instead

I think of the black metal of the motorbike

Tilted on its side stand in its winter kennel,

And the challenge of the weight of its engine

As I haul it upright and drag it back into the daylight.

I think of the shadows in the sunlight on the trees

As I walk the huskies through the rolls of fallen leaves

That would shape a painting, for which I take my photographs,

And the country town café where we gathered at midnight,

Circling the square hand in hand

To dance for the sake of auld lang syne

As the clock strikes

And before the glitter settles

Into last year’s crevices.