Poetry by John Grey
Take off time
Wings shudder,
but the fledgling doesn’t budge.
What’s it waiting for?
A breeze?
More encouragement from its mother
on the branch above?
The sky is there for the taking.
Yet the tiny bird fears
the next step in its modest life.
So it pauses,
as if listening
for the exact moment
the world says yes.
But the world is always saying yes.
Finally the bird launches itself,
flies off into the wide, waiting blue.
And the world says yes again.
And again. And again –
wherever the word is needed.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Midnight Mind, Willow Review and the Pennsylvania Literary Journal. Latest books “Bittersweet,” “Subject Matters” and “Between Two Fires” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the MacGuffin, Touchstone and Willow Review.
