The Old, the New

By Kyle Hina

New is a thief.
A bringer of empty promises and false hopes.
It sneaks into your house and takes your contentment 
              like an apple from your fruit bowl.
New is discontentment wrapped up in a shiny ball of happiness,
              greed disguised as ambition,
              always over promising and often under delivering.
New is a job stealer and a marriage breaker.
New days bring new pains.
New years, new ailments.
New is, by definition, fleeting,
              like a morning snow melted by mid-day 
              leaving everything else wet with what could have been.
 
But old…old persists.

The old guitar plays the songs of generations
The old antique cabinet holds little bits of grandpa’s life, 
              worn and rusted but nevertheless vivid.
The old book tells the stories of time itself.

Old is grandma, rocking back and forth in the rickety chair
              that creaks with wisdom and experience.
Old dots the night sky with wonder
              and illuminates all that we can see. 

Life is made up of the old, like the little red bricks that build the houses of our existence,
              weathered by new storms but still standing strong. 

So this new year I will celebrate the excitement of new things,
              but only by standing on the foundation of the old.  
Knowing that some new things will fleet
              but others will become old things.
And old things are containers of memories that cannot be taken.  

Kyle Hina is a husband, father, software engineer and musician living in Zanesville, Ohio with his wife, two sons and dog.  He has one published short fiction work on 101words.org.