Autumn

Autumn

 

 

 

was a fringe hippie

dancing in the foliage

of a sad war, a movement for equality

 

somewhere a branch extended an education, but

I read Beat poets, and wrote and

many decks of cards passed through my hands

little of the books did

 

life outside the classroom grew me up

molded my mind to the ideals of a decade

of peace, love and smoking, popping 

pricking the skin with adventurous motive

 

and then everything was put on pause

that world stopped in phantom existence

like a specter 

never again resurrected

 

no Lazarus from the late sixties ever found

just an empty grave

robbed of those ideals

supplanted

by a coffin full of dollars

until it was so heavy it cracked

with the weight of greed

 

someone stole the headstone

from the past

silent, stripped ground

without a sound

 

rhetorical questions

asked, answered, debated

and filed away

in some plausible vault

of indifference.

 

oh yes, 

my education didn't have a desk

or notes

or tests

just years of unrest

 

and now,

nothing

not even a prayer

for what it was that died,

decomposed

and in repose

 

I dose

off

thinking we all failed

the season,

for no good reason.

 

 

erin-cilberto

5/5/22

Reviews

[Ana B.]

This is probably one of my favorite poems that you wrote. It seems the ''gods'' are ever changing depending on what we believe in...This was an amazing journey Jacob.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your very kind words, Ana,
j.

[Chris Shaw]

And so it is. When we are young we think we can move mountains. We think we can change things for the better and then, what happens, it all stays the same. We don't learn the lessons, and the whole bloomin warfare cycle starts up again. Back to square one, just alot older. Great nostalgic piece for our generation J.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Chris.
j.

[John the Baptist]

The ideals of youth inevitably collide with something called reality and the need to make a living. The 60's generation thought it could change the world and then woke up years later to find that it was part of the world. And wars and rumors of wars continue. No failure here, just the way of the world.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, John, for touching this one, and showing such understanding,
j.