Procuring Happily Ever After

She freezes on a cracked plastic patio chair. Morse code sleet sings “Auld Lang Syne.” Coffee steam travels north with piercing gusts toward Times Square. A teaspoon, overly used and rarely polished, sleeps frostbitten on the table outside. Planet earth rotates toward a new year as she whispers her resolutions into her styrofoam cup, quickly pouring the contents out as not to spill her secrets during daylight. She shuffles inside to stare at the sparkling stars flickering next to the scent of pine one last time.