A New Year – Happy or Sad?

a poem by Sudarshan Madhav Karhale

Today is the last day
of a departing old year;
tomorrow is the first day
of an arriving new year.

My timid heart is flooded heavily
with countless emotions–
joy and grief,
pleasure and pain;
happiness and sadness,
the foremost.

Of those many
who were close to me,
a few still hold together;
others do not even care to see.

Should I be smiling,
or soak my dark eyes wet in salty tears?
Stand strong and move on,
or stick stubbornly with my unwanted fears?