Essayons

Obstacles are what you see
  When you take your eyes off the goal.
When life's hardships, stress and struggles
  Have seemed to take control.

Keep your thoughts on things ahead,
  Never looking around or back.
For whether we be strong
     Physically or Mentally
  Soon we'll find we all have
     something we lack.

So let us help one another.
  Battle buddies we'll go.
And when finally the end we reach
  Our hearts with pride will glow.

                    - Gabriel T. Short

My Enemies

Do you despise me,
  My face do you hate?
My life is so full
  Of separation and wait.

Have I made you angry?
  What have I done,
That this deceptive scheme
  Upon me you've spun?

Why must you torture me,
  Distance and Time,
And daily confuse my
  Rhythm and Rhyme?

Wouldn't life be Paradise
If these enemies would surrender?
Then to the ones that I adore
  My Heart and Love could render.

                  - Gabriel T. Short

A Soldier I Will Be

With all this confusion
  And all this pain,
Seems there's everyone struggling
  And nothing to gain.
There's no one too talk to, really;
  No one to hug and to hold.
These people all around me
  Words and voices are getting old.
We're learning to become soldiers,
  We all will make mistakes,
But some will learn the hard way
  How much strength it really takes.
Left, Right, Left.
  We're marching through each phase.
Every- day, hour, minute til
  Our graduation days.
When finally its coming clear
  The end we can see,
Its really just the beginning
  Of the US military.
                   - Gabriel T. Short