Santa Claus on Bondi Beach - Oct 27 2024

 

Santa Clause on Bondi Beach

Oct 27 2024

It makes sense

that with the cooler weather

and longer nights

comes the end of the year.

That falling leaves

departing geese

and dormant grass

would seem like portents

of a sort of death.

And who doesn’t feel tempted

to hibernate

this time of year;

to burrow under the covers

and retreat from the world?

So as endings

one after the other

ineluctably settle in,

it begins to feel preordained

that the year has run its course.

I find this season comforting.

I feel less guilty

when nothing gets done,

and when I over-indulge

in food, sleep, or indolence

it seems perfectly natural;

the body

preparing for scarcity

and the torpor of cold.

But at the other end of the world

it’s high summer

when the calendar flips;

when long sunny days

bleed into each other,

and Santa Claus on Bondi beach

seems as ludicrous

as bikinis in the snow.

After all, no one pines for the sun’s return

when it’s almost always sunny.

And who needs a fresh start

in a new year

when the old one seems perfectly fine?

Our northern mindset

has colonized the world.

So in a southern summer

without the usual signs

it’s only when the geese arrive

honking and squabbling in their ragged Vs

— if they even fly that far —

will people realize

that the year is soon to start.

A fresh beginning,

and good riddance

to the weary old.

At least according to the calendar.

Will they sit up

in side-by-side loungers

beside a sun-dappled pool

and raise a glass to January 1st,

a tall gin and tonic

clinking with ice?

Then settle back

flip down their shades

and take a long cool sip,

while once again

bitching about the heat?

Just another summer day

in the faraway antipodes,

where the change of date

must seem merely theoretical.