New Year

The new year beckons like
a bruised bone,
moldy green beneath the skin.
It is a slow cracking open,
brittle beneath the sheath of this body.

Each mistake of the year,
each hurt, throbs
like a careless echo
sent into the inner caves of memory,
setting off some distant crash.

You press into the spot with your 
thumb, hidden inside your pant leg.
You feel the new year there,
a thunder of your own fading reflection
in the warming pain. 

Julia Ponder is a poet and teacher living in the Hudson Valley region of New York. Her poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in several print and online publications, including the Chronogram, 805Lit, The Shawangunk Review, THAT Magazine, and The Sonder Review.