Speak
Use the voice inside you
Don't let it be stale air
Let yourself be heard
It's like a bird not using its beak
To sing and bid sorrow adieu
Trust that someone shall care
And say every hindered word.

- Jay M
July 4th, 2020

Roses aren't always red
Violets are not blue
Only in my head may I hold you.

- Jay M
July 2nd, 2020

Exiting a vehicle of fading black
Looking about
But not looking back
Eagerly setting out
With a pack in back

Only but a few miles to the real start
This day, starting at the very bottom
River of black rock and a strip of yellow paint
Below eager feet
Trekking up, not stopping for the heat
To the left, tall hill of dry brush and crumbling rock
To the right, a great rocky edge
Overlooking a grand sight
Of distant hills and the city

People ahead, talking of the journey
Laughing and prancing about
Soon I'm passing them,
Getting ahead
Eventually stopping to see the view
Only to hear a distant shout;
A name, called in the wind

Time to turn around?
Leave before it has truly begun?
Sad, indeed it is,
For it was with great disappointment
And great sadness
That lay deep in my chest
As we dragged down the hill
Maybe another day to complete the rest
But oh, this day is not that day.

- Jay M
June 28th, 2020

I never regret the past
And its pain
Winter and its rain.
Time is fast
Good and bad
Will never last.
Seize your day
As if the last day.
Make of your life
A daily song
Even if things go wrong.
Life is pretty
Regardless of its being rusty.

They lie in deep slumbers
Under the covers
Safe and sound
Dreaming of things far beyond the ground

Waking up in the morning
Getting dressed and ready for work
Just for that little paycheck, listen to the warning
Brew and drink the coffee, let it give a little perk

Get on the uniform
Drive off to work
Park and run in
Join in the swarm
Of phone calls and shuffling papers
Or loud machines and swift feet
All dreaming of the same thing;

Something better
Something that pays more
To live a better life
To give their husbands, wives,
And children all better lives

To be greater than this
To do better than their current hand
Earn themselves something better
For themselves
Or their families
To just enter some kind of bliss

Take a stand, give them a hand
As they reach from the ground
Building their way up to the clouds
To be where they dream to be
In the sky - in their dream sky.

- Jay M
May 29th, 2020

A notice, a chance
To speak face to face
Presented and hopeful
Alas, when voiced to those in power
The first response, a gentle no
The second, a firm rejection
Surprised, and eventually scared

Loaded and driven away
Fear settles in
An icy realization
Notify the partner in crime
All is unstable

Arriving at the destination
Other home
Another place where I yearn to be alone
To shed tears of fear and pain
A deep, gnawing aching
Once more, a fresh wound
A gaping hole in my chest
Bleeding, tainting all it touches

Allowing salty rivers to flow for a short while
Then fold, fold enough paper to stretch for a mile
25 at one home, 65 at another
Folding until I must stop
Or until not one more tear does drop

All left to be shed on the inside
Then laid to rest
For remembering what I had said,
"I will wait for you, as long as it takes."

This promise I shall keep
Indeed, sometimes I shall weep
But would one not weep,
When all is left to the unknown
And you are left all alone?

The days shall be long
But I shall keep you in my heart
Even if I am shattered, in part,
I shall remain strong

Awaiting the day when you return
For this time, I did learn
To be patient, for all good things come in time
For now you remain in my love-filled rhyme
Just as I remember you
With that smile, and all the things you do
And hopefully, one day I shall hear you say again,
"I love you too."

- Jay M
May 18th, 2020