Merry Christmas to you all

I hope you’ve been well

Ha! Who am I kidding?

This year has been Hell.

In the beginning

There was… a Superbowl

I don’t remember who played

But I recall Shakira and J.Lo

Then March brings COVID

And we all have to stay home

Wondering who bought all the toilet paper

Spending way too much time on our phones

The NBA is cancelled

All of Broadway is shut down

The Olympics are postponed

And cities resemble ghost towns

The government releases actual UFO footage

Which should have given us a scare?

But we’re too busy bingeing Netflix

So… no one really cares

Every day I would swear

At this God-forsaken year

“What the #@*% now, 2020?!”

And 2020 is like, “Here. Hold my beer.”

“I see your Plague

And I’ll raise you a locust swarm

And also some murder hornets

Just as the weather gets warm.

“How ‘bout a Sahara dust cloud?

And raging fires out West?

The year’s not yet over

I’ve got more for the rest

“I can see you there on Cape Cod

I’ve got something special for you all

How ‘bout an earthquake and tornado scare

To round out the Fall?”

So what have we learned this year?

Are we resilient? Do we have enough grit?

Did we learn how to Pivot?

Mostly we are just DONE WITH IT

Did we center ourselves

Or find inner peace

Somewhere between all the wine

And platters of cheese?

I had so much time on my hands

But that wasn’t the reason

I chose not to deep clean my house

As we closed out each season

The quarantine time distortion

May have reduced us to tears

Because 2020 has lasted 12 months

And emotionally, 486 years

I have learned not to tempt Fate or Karma

By screaming “BRING IT ON!” each day

Because surely 2020 would whisper back at me,

“Oh, but I came to play.”

This is the year we bought groceries online

And our hair grew too long

We did drive-by parades

And we miss all the choir songs

Here’s to the heroes

Gone to work everyday

We owe you more than a thanks

More than we could ever say

Here’s to the teachers

So very dear to my heart

Reaching out to each student

Even when they’re apart

Here’s to The Unscripted Year

I raise my fists and shout,

“Goodbye and Good Riddance 2020,

(Don’t?) Let the door hit you on the way out!”

“Someday soon, we all will be together

If the Fates allow

Until then

We’ll have to muddle through somehow…”