Her heart is breaking
A child, the prayer unanswered
His heart breaks for her
Copyright © 2008 by Jake Olden Shy
Untitled
The oppressive sun
beating down
on a forgotten southwestern town
Empty streets echo
against forsaken framework
A ghost town
I’m standing
with squinting eyes bleeding
red and watering
Dust blowing and tumbleweed
rolls as wavering heat rises
from cracked and broken earth
A slowly approaching figure
familiar in form and gait
clad in shadow
as yet unknown
Slowly solidifying
stopping in staunch stance
a hand quickly slides death
from a holster
and erupting fire
initiates thick red explotions
within my chest
I’m propelled rearward
hard to unforgiving ground
Lying still
as life seeps from gastly holes
in my plagued torso
Quietly the cloaking shadow
separates from the figure
and dying I stare
into wide innocent eyes
My son
Copyright © 2004 by Jake Olden Shy
Untitled
Each year the saddest month
Approaches like a thief
Robbing my tranquillity
Leaving me with grief
I need not tell directly
The truth within these lines
Thirty-one days of sorrow
Held in it’s design
The first full month of autumn
The leaves began to fall
She left that cold gray morning
I can vividly recall
The tail lights fading quickly
Her car speeds up the road
My eyes are deep and misty
A tragedy bestowed
A kiss absent is fading
That was our last good-bye
I thought it would be different
We vanished with a sigh
For we talked of reuniting
A tomorrow coming soon
Discussing the arrangements
For the moment opportune
In our youth we didn’t notice
The wishful thinking of our hearts
Now our memory is fading
The dissolution starts
In short time we simply fade away
She’ll rarely cross my mind
Until the anniversary
Finds me to remind
Early on the sixth day
My life’s dramatic turning
Though time erased the suffering
My heart still feels a yearning
The month within the stanzas
Of the poem you just read
The sum is a solution
Of my final clue imbed
Copyright © 2001 by Jake Olden Shy
The Enlisted Man
I fought in every battle
I forged our history
With my wounds, I signed in blood
Our freedom guarantee
I stood with General Washington
Faced the winter and starvation
My spirit and undying will
Claimed for us, a nation
I marched proudly into Gettysburg
A battle like no other
Charging into blazing rifles
Felled by my brother
With the birth of aviation
I was among the first to fly
Overcoming great adversity
I helped command the sky
I fought the wars in Europe
And Korea, Vietnam
I died at the hands of terrorists
And pushed back Saddam
I follow without question
The orders of command
Though often their necessity
I do not understand
I wear the Medal of Honor
For action without thought
Often paying with my life
The lives of friends I bought
I’m the one who stood the watches
The one who dug latrines
I took care of my buddy
As a matter of routine
I’m the backbone of our service
I did more with less
I kept the mission going
With innovation and finesse
I stand a quiet vigil
Making very few demands
Officers prize my respect
I am the enlisted man
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
Wanting More
Wanting more than I have today
Something missing immaterial
Searching to place a finger
Lost within the depths
Touching nothing save vacancy
Surrounding pitch
A blackness thick and clinging
The prize just beyond my grasp
Reach and almost there
Lose a fragile hold
Plummeting back to
Wanting more than I have today
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
Mother’s Day
Remembering the day
He broke your gold vase
You’d warned him, “be careful”
To give it some space
And yet he ignored you
Continued to play
The vase now in pieces
What price will he pay?
But her anger reserved
For the one that she loves
Condemning with kindness
Forgivness the dove
A mother’s eyes
Are a shield of compassion
Her softer spirit
As strong as a bastion
With kinder words
And tender touch
She’s allaying the pain
Her love is the crutch
Now, his heart is protected
In two loving hands
With a hug and a kiss
She’ll erase life’s demands
As he picks up the pieces
Of his mom’s broken treasure
She’s smiling warmly
They glue it together
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
New Life
Searching a sea of confusion
Lost with no land in sight
Forcing a love became an intrusion
To a heart sick from the fight
Safe at home with my new life
Enjoying the freedom today
Contentment found without a wife
A mind no more in disarray
A simple life I have found
With my children a new home
Priceless moments now abound
A new chapter to my tome
No strings and no attachment
The decisions are my own
No more a bank account overspent
A savings slowly grown
No one to ask permission
No one must I consult
Indecision is lost to attrition
Independence the result
I need no one to share my bed
For sex tends to confuse
A heart so easily is misled
Snared within the ruse
As heart and mind find concert
With regret I am resigned
For one I did not mean hurt
Has found her love declined
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
The Meeting Place
1
Home
from the office
and throwing
children’s clothes
into a bag
Into the car
again
On the road
again
Traveling
to the familiar
intersection
(the meeting place)
Salutations
and hugs
for the weekend
mother
2
Sunlight
shines through the window
and lights
the face ushering
him out of bed
Shuffling feet
into the kitchen
to peel apart
coffee filters
and draw water
for coffee
A newspaper
awaits in brisk
winter air
A lonely table
set for breakfast
Opening the paper
He sips his coffee
3
Returning
to the meeting place
The children wait
Arriving
the take-home father
greeted with hugs
places the bag
in the car
Children bid
farewell
to the weekend
mother
Cars drive off
in opposite directions
Copyright © 1999 by Jake Olden Shy
First Love Lost
Lonely on this corner
Heart hangs on my sleeve
Taillights are diminishing
As I watch you leave
Never before in my life
Has there been a love so pure
At first sight it was unseen
Years later it endures
A tragedy split apart
My heart beat to explode
A lifetime crashing in on me
Isolation my abode
Oceans flowing from my eyes
Air in gulping breath
Love becomes a world apart
This loss becomes my death
Copyright © 1999 by Jake Olden Shy
Truth in Love
Lennon said, “love is real”
If that is so, there’s truth in love
The truth in love, holds no appeal
For love’s a vulture, not a dove
A vulture picking at my flesh
The torn tissues of my heart
A wound within my mind still fresh
The vulture plays it’s part
A part within my lonely life
The life defines disparity
I live within a world of strife
Content in my austerity
Austere the world within my eyes
Where love is held in ill-repute
A crumbling heart is my demise
My surrender absolute
Copyright © 1999 by Jake Olden Shy
