Cover

(Written Saturday, March 19, 2011, while completing army infantry training. Boot camp takes away a part of you, forcing you to find it and take it back.)

I find no solace in hooks and blows
or combat quarters close.
I get no high in steel or chrome
for they cannot fend off the ghosts.
Nighttime twinge marks confusion's wake,
no cover to hide from fear.
First step's courage is next step's drain
expressed by Sunday's tears.
Twists and turns of heart and soul
behind these walls expected.
Shouts and chants build fortress guise,
true self goes undetected.
Yield not to weakness, to pain, to hunger,
to mind's resistance strong.
Give in to order, to tradition's code,
and to identity - so long.
Build trust, make friends, make memories,
learn life from one another.
And when flag and promise
take life and limb,
dress, recover.

O, My Mind

(Written Friday, April 16, 2010. Oftentimes it seems the most important and fundamental task in life is the most difficult.)

O, my mind,
open to me.
Sometimes I don't even know you,
there's so much I cannot see.
Each moment is mystery,
sacred fear I trust.
But within unknown truths,
to know you is a must.

O, my mind,
what is it you really want?
I'm back and forth along this course,
past decisions haunt.
So often unwise,
so foolish and young.
Yet within such short years,
time can seem so long.

O, my mind,
this moment much reveals;
can patience ease uncertainty?
Does honesty heal?
In some ways I know the answers,
in others, forever blind.
I guess I'll forge ahead this path,
and leave them all behind.