Unmerry Jaymas

Twas the night before Jaymas, when all through the home

Not a monster was stirring, not even a gnome!

Stockings were piled by the Chimney in bulk
In the hopes that St Nicholas came with a truck.

The jaysome was nestled all snug in a bed

With visions of food stuffs in his head

Charlie in her clothing and Honcho his too

Had just toasted drinks and said ‘you too’

When up on the roof there arose such a clatter

Jay sprang to find the oops that was the matter

Away through the window he flew like a Jay

Staring at a star that burned bright in the sky

The star blotted out the moon over the fallen snow

Giving a lustre of wonder to objects below

When what to a wondering Jay should appear

But that burning star that caused only fear

Another Jay stood beside so so inhumanly quick

With a touch at fifteen left Jay sleeping and sick

More rapid than raptors the others they came

And he turned slow, and nodded, and knew them by name!

“Now magician, now Charlie,” he said in a strain

“Jay wished for dinosaurs but they haven’t came.

No stegosaurus, no brontosaurus, no t-rex or two

Just this adventure though it is not for you.”

As the calm of a storm in a hurricane flies

So the wandering magician looked to the sky

“I know what this he,” he said, only true

And at his sadness so Charlie knew it too.

With a cracking the tiles shattered on the roof

And the magician looked grimly at the truth

And Jay drew in a breath and reached out a hand

And said: “I am so sorry, you mist understand.”

He is dressed all in black, except his head and his feet

His clothing is as dark as the secrets that he keeps

The weight of time presses down on his back

He looked young for fifteen and down on his luck

His eyes how they still! his dimples how jaysome

His sigh a whole poem, his expression most glum

“Forget,” he said, his eyebrows tight and drawn

And both went back to sleep to wake with the dawn

A binding in hand, Jay held tight in clenched teeth

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.

He stared up at the star, waved one hand to the telly

And voices from it laughed like playing with jelly!

As the cover of sound he sighed again to himself

“I do what I must, and I do it for myself.”

A closing of the eye, a nod of his head

And the star tried to flee in a moment of dread!

He spoke not a word but went straight to his work

Binding the star knowing he himself was a jerk

He pushed it through time and away it goes

To a time in the past no one living knows

He lowers his hands as though covered in thistle

“Back to the dinosaurs it’s gone like a missile.”

Jay is still sleeping and he warms at the sight

“Happy Jaymas to all, and to all a good night!”