Midnight, December 31st

When you’re a kid, you beg to be

Awake at twelve so you can see

The New Year in, except you doze

Try as you might, your eyes just close

You’ll waken to your siblings’ jeer

“Missed it again, like every year!”

 

When you grow up, it’s party time

You raise a glass at midnight’s chime

The night is filled with noise and toasts

And revelry with jolly hosts

You long in secret for your bed

A place to rest your aching head

 

When you grow old, here’s what you know:

The year will come, the year will go

You may as well do what you will

If you’re asleep, it happens still

The New Year doesn’t need you, so

At ten, it’s off to bed you go

 

We watch the years as they stream by

Nobody told us how they’d fly

But for the times we won’t forget

We’ll take a cup of kindness yet

We’ll drink to yours; we’ll drink to mine

For auld lang syne, for auld lang syne