January 1, Somewhere Other Than Home
- Ana Chatterjee
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
by Ana Chatterjee
for Writers' Block: A contribution from our AWA Writers' Group members
The year changes while I’m asleep
in a rented room
with a view of someone else’s laundry
waving like it knows me.
Fireworks go off
as if noise could scare life into behaving.
People kiss.
Promises are made the way drunks order water
with no intention of finishing it.
Back home it’s yesterday.
Or tomorrow.
Time zones mess with the idea of rebirth.
My mother is still clearing dinner.
Some version of me is still arguing
in a bar I won’t return to.
They say new year
like it’s a door
and not the same hallway
with different lighting.
I don’t feel new.
I feel exported.
Stamped.
Slightly dented in transit.
Everyone’s talking about becoming better.
Thinner.
Kinder.
More disciplined.
I’m just trying to remember
which currency buys milk
and which version of me
answers to my name here.
Midnight doesn’t fix anything.
It never did.
It just arrives
wearing a better suit.
The truth is
I’ve started things on random Tuesdays,
on bad mornings,
in the middle of giving up.
I’ve ended things without ceremony,
without witnesses,
without a countdown.
Change doesn’t wait for permission.
It doesn’t care about calendars.
It shows up when you’re tired enough
to stop lying.
So I drink to that.
Not the year.
Not the resolutions.
Just the small, stubborn fact
that a beginning
has always been available,
even when no one was clapping.
 | Ana Chatterjee is a poet and writer of free prose, drawn to the unspectacular truths of everyday life. Her work stays close to the ground; unpolished, observant, and rooted in realism, lingering on the small moments most people step over. A serial expat, she has lived across multiple geographies, carrying their textures and dislocations into her writing. After moving to Singapore in 2025, Ana began to take her writing more seriously and now shares her work through a dedicated poetry account on social media. She values the AWA writers’ group deeply and is grateful to its members for the encouragement, generosity, and steady push to keep her words in the world. |
 | The AWA Writers’ Group meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more information, send an email to
"If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it" Toni Morrison |
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