When The Jays Fly Away Poem by Phillip Erb

Blue jay perched on my flagpole
The only color contrasting against
A fall gray making haste to
Chase summer skies away
My winter’s coming this Sunday
and there is nowhere to run from the nature’s blunt revenge
Why’s it so easy to learn the hard way?
This cyclone life trails the slippery tails of memory
Will there ever be a way to make yesterday alive?
The fading light smolders from the last the day’s cigarettes
and does little to illuminate the door of my cage

I wish I could say no one ever warned me
about the power of disobedience
and the consequence of losing innocence
in the dark where purity’s light has been blown out
The only decision left is the pain of smiling into the face of cold wind
The sinner’s mistakes decay and fall apart around my feet
Where heaven’s tears have turned the earth to mud
Life is simple when you can count each one of your chances
in a matter of seconds as they dance like fleeting dreams after the alarm tolls
Each choice stares back into your face before the Fall’s tongue sucks them down Winter’s throat.