Happy 2017!

Say good-by to the old year;

Say hello to the new.

Let go of the past and try to recast

A new and exciting you.

Say good riddance to all of your worries;

Start out fresh and clean.

Strive to find peace of mind

In TWENTY SEVENTEEN.

 

The past year was a messy one

With floods in the Midwest.

Then the ruler of North Korea,

Who has to be possessed

And thumbs his nose at the world and is

Always involved in a tussle,

Exploded a hydrogen bomb, thus

Flexing his little muscle.

LGBT and voting rights

Were both under attack.

Horrible massacres occurred

In Pakistan and Iraq.

In Syria and Afghanistan

Massacres happened as well.

And Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia

Both had a taste of hell.

 

Record-breaking blizzards made

The East cold and wet.

Scaring the world, the Zika virus

Continued to be a threat.

The water in Flint, Michigan,

Was an ongoing crisis.

Ancient ruins in the Middle East

Were STILL being bombed by ISIS.

The Clinton e-mail "scandal" grew

To ridiculous proportions.

More and more states were killing

Women's rights to abortions.

President Erdogan in Turkey

Cracked down on the press.

In the South China Sea, China

Was causing a lot of distress.

 

Britain voted to leave the EU.

Obama went to Japan

And visited Hiroshima--

A long-overdue plan.

Russia hacked U.S. computers

And boasted of certain connections,

Making us wonder how much control

We have over elections.

Summer record-breaking heat

Baked many states,

While the media bombarded us

With presidential debates.

The Summer Olympics took place this year

In lovely Rio, but mercy!

It's always hard to pull that off

Without some controversy.

 

This year we lost some famous people--

Too many to list.

Bowie, Ali, Leonard Cohen

And others will be missed.

(By the way, if memories here

Tend of focus on bad things,

Just remember that life is full

Of both happy and sad things.)

The economy has made improvements;

Unemployment is down.

Some businesses, they say,

Are really going to town.

Many people want to know

How much Donald Trump earns;

The billionaire still refuses

To show us his tax returns!

 

Fires raged in California.

In Oklahoma the land

Shook from fracking quakes, which

Are getting out of hand.

Protesters demonstrated

Together at Standing Rock

The oil pipeline coming their way.

They gathered round the clock.

Hurricane Mathew slammed hard

Into our eastern coast.

But Glenn Beck's conversion was

What shocked us the most,

Next to the presidential election,

That is. What a surprise!

And to think the unthinkable happened

Right before our eyes!

 

But say good-by to the old year;

Say hello to the new.

Let go of the past and try to recast

A new and exciting you.

Say good riddance to all of your worries;

Start out fresh and clean.

Strive to find peace of mind

In TWENTY SEVENTEEN.

 

(12-28-16)