Have you broken yours yet?

Have you misplaced the list of items neatly written out,

first in soft lined pencil, then set in stone in unforgiving ink

and underscored in black lipstick with a faint damned kiss

or with the blood of a passing forethought that strayed too close to the

edge?

 

This list, did it contain anything that you truly wanted to do or be

or better still, to achieve something in which others

would benefit from without ever knowing it was you

that set them on the road to redemption?

 

The I-want of days gone by replaced with good intentions

with the I-will or I-can, I-believe and not even using the personal

pro-noun once in your yearly statement to the world.

Why on the one day of the year, when overfilled bellies

overtake the  undernourished minds we seek for guidance,

do we swear more oaths and fealties than on the day of eternal judgment?

 

Have you broken yours yet, these binding lists

that sometimes don’t even reach a week, let alone forever,

have you changed one person’s life in that time for the good

without causing harm?

I have broken mine and to be honest I’m not sure I have.

 

Ian D. Hall 2015.