The Noblest Ones

You give as you know someone must for others to have the freedom to take, and the opportunity to choose....
Teach, and hold in that a dream of futures bright
Fight, the flames which would remorselessly claim the precious
Police, the places and times where fear would rule
Heal, the wounded who need succor when no others can grant
Shelter, the spirit when souls wander lost
Defend, the rights and lives of the weary and trodden
Soldier, far afield, and in harm's way
Take, and relish, what we give. Your love is our cause. We will never stop.
Ever.

No wonder I could never mean happiness, you thought you were just tagging along.....

How could I have ever been so blind to think I am more than a....hell, I don't know what I am....? I can never be good enough, or bad enough. I can never have a chance if you won't even give yourself one. Nothing wrong with me I suppose is what will be said. How come I don't feel that way though?

Typing this should be cathartic, but I don't know if I want anyone else to even read it.

You don't even seem disappointed.

Landed reign

Pitter patter little feat
Once starling'd verily doth entreat
Wake anew ship's followin' see
Abaft of been foreword, hard alee
Nock one for the crow that flies
From say, lures nest to remain dry
Frown among the rippled cloud
To plough ahead the comb 'ed shroud
The figurehead has broken 'gain
To intrest 'ed wonts play this game
Venal one boast and rock'd the sure
Ashore ahoy and is no more

Softly Now

Then stalk amongst those reeded shores of trite oblivion. Once they held secrets, but now only grief. You came upon a seeker who knew your own remission, and mandated that you find yourself for none other than your own. There are dreams in sleep, and rest in dreams to come. As the horizon of the nights of love draw nigh upon thee, know that whelmed the senses shall be, and never more to come again what has been round and round. Back again but round is not and naught for effort what he sought. You find only for yourself a heart of gold and diamond surely wrought. Sooth says love and heart to beat, but none other than hasty retreat. Bring unto the fore again, such heart as one man may regain.

PLS-7Z

No one really knew how to name them. This wasn't due to a lack of imagination, but rather, the seemingly inevitable expansion of mankind's own literature and thoughts. What after all, could one man imagine which hadn't been forseen by a hundred before? The actual name was long, and would have raised objections from some distant past comittee as it conflicted with other names for other programs. The military has always thought itself on top of things, but when the Uniform-Carbon Based Reinforced Nanoplate Exoskeleton was set in motion in a prototype, no one mentioned that 'U-CBRNE' actually hinted at something far more uninviting. So they numbly kept the acronym as part of the identification and inventory convention, and happily nicknamed it 'Jupiter.' Oh, and yeah, Pluto, you uneducated windbags, is the Roman god of the underworld. Jupiter.....bureaucrats.

Never failing to appreciate the classics, senior appropriations members were still doomed to never understand most of lessons contained therein. Maybe the Greeks were on to something, but I never really thought we should focus on a society known for authoring tragedy as a way to name our weapons of war. Those same 'members' (I use the term loosely, you understand), claimed that our war dead would soon never number higher than the accidentl handful due to fratricide, or accidents. So, they said the suits (more like vehicles if you ask me) should be "named for the Greek God of the Dead." I guess no one told them 'Jupiter' is the Roman name.

The first series came out of prototype assembly in 2027. There were 42. Albeit, the researchers, designers and engineers claimed each suit to be the equivalent to one full light infantry battalion of the mid-20th century, they had failed utterly at training the not quite hand-picked volunteers that were suppose to fight the prototypes. Result? Well, the same type of simulated fire training which had led to countless unbloody battles between traditional forces, left the four fire teams of Jupiter suits completely trashed.

You see, the guys trained to fight them were simply cooks, administrators and supply clerks, who were only assigned to the project so real people would give real feedback. If a polling had been done, the project leaders would have found that, first, none of the personnel assigned to test the suits were even remotely familiar with science, second none of the personnel had a clue what Nanoplate was and finally, only three had ever even been in a live combat situation. Sure, some had been tankers or cavalry, a couple had even been infantry, but that did not matter to the well-trained, seasoned, heavy combat division of more than 12,000 troops assigned to take the platoon out. The bottom line: Men will not charge a tank alone, no matter what you are wearing, if you don't think you'll survive. Every engagement which occured over the course of a 15 day exercise, found the suited troopers ducking, and running for cover which left them trapped, pinned and ultimately negated. The 'enemy' forces, simply cowed them into submission. No one had explained to the suited troopers, the whole purpose of the engagements, was to test the mobility, and adaptabilty of the suits. After all, why would a soldier run and hide from a tank if they were wearing a suit of armor capable of taking a depleted uranium sabot round to the head and not leaving more than a smear of glancing spall? The imagined conflict was a slaughter. The project leaders were spluttering by the end of the two weeks, while the 'enemy' commander just gloated and congratulated his soldiers on a job well done.

It took nearly ten months to recruit, fit, train and qualify 42 more, actual hand picked volunteers for the next exercise. By then, the Jupiter II was ready for fielding. (The observer teams, and engineers had collectively contributed more than 1,400 improvements, adjustments and capability changes to the scientists on the design team)

This time....the "exercise" would be exactly that, and no shortage of it, for the 'enemy'.....

Mirage of Citrus Gray

Not roiled or wavered, just smoldered and flavored
Marked by man's respite
Naught yet to come, my kingdom's done
Lengthen my dreams this day's night


Damn I am tired.

Really.

Fleeted Footing

Through and through oh where to next
The places that i once betwixt
Was part of me left that far behind
And all of you to nevermind
Seeing time rend heart and soul
Has quick become my solo role
The view from inside is without
Any perspective, any doubt
We see as what we came to be
Our only prison, fancy free
Spectacles that cannot blind
What for ourselves we do not mind
Nonce forever anonce again
i am my only not my friend
For his enemies are from without
Where they storm ever here and about
Did skies of blue just pass me by
Or did my fiery horizon die
Was there truth in why we were
So in truth found i am a cur

Hooray

I suck. (really I always meant this, but was afraid some folks would be mad)Why did I fall that time.....