Should Old Acquaintance

When the New Year’s ball descends,
A million bits
Of white and colored confetti,
Tossed from roofs of skyscapers,
Tumble helter-skelter, pell-mell,
Like dancing comic clowns
Prancing madly in mid-air,

A riot of aerial acrobats
Performing Olympian stunts.
Above the tumbling maze—
black silence.