The Second Day of the Year

• No one ever talks about it.

• The parties have ended.
• Confetti has been swept up and thrown away.
• Headaches have disappeared.

• And maybe that’s why I’ve always preferred
• the second day of the year.

• Because it’s ordinary, unassuming.

• The streets are quiet.
• Stores are open.
• There are no parades or football games.

• You can walk without feeling lonely.

• Nobody wants to quit smoking
• or propose,
• or make promises they can’t keep.

• On the second day of the year,
• nobody expects anything.

• Plans are struck down,
• couples go on fighting,
• bigger and better resolutions get made.

Clint Margrave was born in 1974. He is the author most recently of The Early Death of Men, a collection of poems from NYQ Books (nyqbooks.org), which also publishes the New York Quarterly literary journal. Once an aspiring musician, Clint set down his guitar in his early 20s to commit himself entirely to writing. He has worked construction, waited tables, been a bookseller and a shipping clerk, and now teaches English at Cal State University, Long Beach, and El Camino College. He lives in Long Beach, California. Clint will be giving a reading from his work at Open Door Books, at 4761 Cass Street in Pacific Beach, on Sunday, January 13, at 3 in the afternoon. The event is free. “The Second Day of the Year” is from The Early Death of Man and is reprinted by permission.