The Door’s Ajar

This is a room for two.
And I have to stay in; All life.
With me stays a year— one at a time.
I have to let go of one
to welcome the other.
But this one, was too dearly.
Too thick to regret, too thin to recall.
Such that, I call it ‘you’.

I stand at the doorway now,
holding the door ajar.
It crawls, reaching my feet, 
tugs the hem of my shirt
until I pick it up, kiss and leave
like a child going to school for the first time
except that I know of no returning ever.

“It is but a night, from old to new,
Only a sleep from dark to dawn.
New year may be a hard adieu
New year is but a year reborn.”

Sings the chime from the opposite window,
Learn to let go, it rings
Learn to look for things ahead,
Wait for what it brings.

I doubt not it, 
for this year was a stranger too,
this too had tip-toed softly once,
this too was a rhyme anew.

I’m still standing at the doorway,
Yes, the door is still ajar.
I see the tenses shaking hands,
I wave at times from year apart.