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Nov 2021 · 248
The Very Best Treasure
Lee Carter Nov 2021
Love is the only thing worth dying for
Not because you can take it with you,
but because you leave it behind.
Feb 2021 · 289
Nightmares
Lee Carter Feb 2021
Concern yourself less with the fears that follow you,

And rather more with the ones you chase.
Lee Carter Jan 2021
When you buy a lie
you get what you pay for.
Jan 2021 · 252
Tragedy
Lee Carter Jan 2021
The only thing that can make the surprise of tragedy worse,

Is when it is thoroughly unsurprising.
Jan 2021 · 400
Puzzles
Lee Carter Jan 2021
When one forces their imagined shape to fit in,

They discover- often too late,

That they may now be stuck.
Dec 2020 · 611
Sore
Lee Carter Dec 2020
Any lessons we neglect to win in defeat,
we are sure to lose in victory.
REWORK
Dec 2020 · 440
To Be or Not To Be
Lee Carter Dec 2020
"To be or not to be,"
That is the question,

nothing more.

The answer is for you to choose,

nothing more.








Nothing more.
Dec 2020 · 310
Hypocrite Hero
Lee Carter Dec 2020
"I loathe all hypocrisy
and courageously endure my own."
Dec 2020 · 330
Drama
Lee Carter Dec 2020
I argue with you inside my head
Angered by words you've never said.

I write our scripts to my design
Then am vexed when you botch your lines.
Dedicated to the lady.
Dec 2020 · 83
Remember:
Lee Carter Dec 2020
Your most memorable words come from your mind, your heart, and your ***.
It's best to know which one you're speaking from.
Dec 2020 · 209
Young Man's Ghost
Lee Carter Dec 2020
Living as a young man's ghost
Forgetting that, which mattered most.

Haunting steps, where once were bold,
To ponder when I became so old.
Dec 2020 · 399
Makes Perfect
Lee Carter Dec 2020
Practice patience,
Or you will always have less of it.
Nov 2020 · 173
Selfish Man
Lee Carter Nov 2020
[G, D, A, A]
Losers never gamble
The house, it always wins
It's easy to get to heaven
Still gotta pay to get in

On the road to the end of the line
No need to hurry, we can get there slow
The Devil tried to buy my soul
I said, "I'm sorry, sold it long ago."

Money can't buy you happiness
A lesson most can't afford to learn
Took a fire, set it to all my bridges
Sat back, relaxed and watched them burn

[Chorus]
[D, C, G, G]
All my life I've had many names
Saint's never been one
If the road to evil's been paved with good intentions
Well then, guess it's better to have none

I won't change just because I can
I want you to want me for who I am

'Cause I'm a selfish man
And I can't give a ****

So won't you lend me your heart sunshine?
You can't have mine because it's mine

[G, D, A, A]
Can you help me ma'am? I'm trying to stay lost
Got turned around but I still know my way
Like to forget that tomorrow's coming
Now I just wish it were yesterday

Don't know where the hell I'm going to
No idea where I'm supposed to be
If you're not there when I arrive
Then I guess it doesn't matter to me

Way too late to end things now
Way too soon to say goodbye
I could tell you things will last forever
You want the truth, then don't ask me to lie
Still kinda working on this one, but I'm happy with what I have so far!
Nov 2020 · 119
Crying
Lee Carter Nov 2020
Cry hard.         Cry long.

But know you cannot hold love
with a broken heart.
Oct 2020 · 79
The Priceless Truth
Lee Carter Oct 2020
When you buy a story,
Know what it's worth,
Remember where you bought it,
And most importantly
Understand what it cost you.
Oct 2020 · 148
Cynicism
Lee Carter Oct 2020
It is the habit of the cynical
to believe themselves too smart to be optimistic;

This allows them the privilege of being unhappy,
even when they are right.
Oct 2020 · 321
Zombie Heart
Lee Carter Oct 2020
[F#m, A, E, F#m, D, A, E, F#m]

Zombie Heart, why do you keep coming back?
Thought I killed you long ago.
Tried to hide from you undead love attack
Ran as far and fast as I could go.

Left you somewhere I hoped I would forget
Dug a heart-shaped grave and threw you in.
Buried you down so deep I haven't finished yet
An endless war I know I'll never win.

[A, E, F#m, F#m]

Do you think I like breaking you?
My hands are stained red.
Do us both a favor and
This time just stay dead.
Happy October!
Oct 2020 · 106
Either or
Lee Carter Oct 2020
You either learn from your mistakes
or become better at making them.
Oct 2020 · 303
Simon White
Lee Carter Oct 2020
Foul, hideous, and horrid
Unfit for natural light.
An image, none as grisly
As the man named Simon White.

Once his heart was broken
So he kept the pieces in a box.
Tethered safely to his hip
With tight chains and key-less locks.

His mind was wont to wander
To clouds too high and skies too far.
So to keep himself grounded down to earth,
He kept his brain inside a jar.

His teeth would never smile.
Traded some and sold the others
Each to an unfamiliar home
Now all without their brothers.

Oh, his tongue was such a bore!
So he minced it to a paste.
He boiled, baked, and seasoned it
Yet still it had no taste.

He grew tired of his eyes
Looking down and looking back
So he took a brush with inked tip
And painted them pitch black.

The shrieks and wails of the passerby
He could not stand to hear.
So he melted a *** of candles
And stuffed the wax in each ear.

His face had done no wrong
But with fear it one day might,
He took a knife and chopped its nose!
Less from prudence and more from spite...
REPOST
Oct 2020 · 261
Edward Bligh
Lee Carter Oct 2020
Born in nineteen seventeen,
And died in sixty-seven.
His heart gave out, he became a ghost!
But did not go to heaven...

So now he haunts these hallowed grounds
From silver nights to dewy dawn.
His spectral frame glides above the grass
And drifts across the lawn.

But when morning comes and moonlight fades,
He knows it's time to leave.
To allow the other graveyard patrons
Their own time to grieve.

So he floats off to his tombstone,
Lies down in this coffin bed.
Every morning he dreams he is alive-
But each night he wakes up dead.
REPOST
Happy October!
Oct 2020 · 174
Fear, Love, and Both
Lee Carter Oct 2020
If you have a fear of love,
Then you have a love of fear.
Sep 2020 · 144
Integrity
Lee Carter Sep 2020
The most important quality for a politician is integrity.

The successful ones have none.
Sep 2020 · 259
"Trust me"
Lee Carter Sep 2020
If a man needs you to believe a lie,
He will often say, "trust me."

If a man needs you to believe the truth,
He will speak it.
Sep 2020 · 413
Do as I say, not as I do
Lee Carter Sep 2020
Hypocrisy is its own critique.
The shadow of an argument that casts shade upon itself.
Sep 2020 · 744
Brittle Heart
Lee Carter Sep 2020
[C, E, Am, F]
Break my heart but keep the pieces
Take the pain that I don't need
Cut myself on every sharp edge
Not enough blood in me to bleed

Tried to fit it back together
A puzzle that's just too hard for me
Love keeps leaking from the fine cracks
Guess that's why it's always empty



Brittle, breaking
Cold and always aching
Hurting, burning
Dumb but never learning

I am a fool
For loving you
Less than
I love
To hate myself
Something small I've been working on
Sep 2020 · 514
Serenity
Lee Carter Sep 2020
I sought serenity in silence
to find an empty sound.

I looked for calm in darkness
where in light it can't be found.

I searched for peace inside myself
to win the war within.

I explored the path to journey's end
so that I could then begin.
Aug 2020 · 171
A Plea for the Stingy Heart
Lee Carter Aug 2020
None have too little
If bold enough to share;

With only love for oneself
You'll have none to spare.
REWORK
Aug 2020 · 90
Regret
Lee Carter Aug 2020
Were I a stronger boy, I would've fought for less.
Were I a wiser fool, I would've played more chess.
Were I a richer man, I would not have such debt.
Were my life a boring one, I would not have regret.
Aug 2020 · 40
Full and Up
Lee Carter Aug 2020
It's hard not to be full of ****
When your head is up your ***.
Jul 2020 · 148
Hellbound
Lee Carter Jul 2020
To perfect paradise
We are, too often, sent hellbound.
Jul 2020 · 86
Untitled
Lee Carter Jul 2020
Impatience burns away our youth,
Angers demand their toll.
Lies **** the trusting heart,
And secrets dye the soul.
Jun 2020 · 145
Solstice
Lee Carter Jun 2020
Summer rains and pleasant breeze
Gracious shade from reaching trees.

Balmy days and mild nights
Charming smells and vibrant sights.

A solstice born to a lover's June
Heralds Fall that comes too soon.
Jun 2020 · 50
Idiocy
Lee Carter Jun 2020
Idiocy is not inherent;
It is, altogether more terrifyingly, habitual.
REWORK
Jun 2020 · 207
Hunger
Lee Carter Jun 2020
When we are fed with lies
We lose our taste for truth.
We growl and moan at our starving kin,
As we march so hungry into the grinding teeth of war.
REWORK
Jun 2020 · 55
Time
Lee Carter Jun 2020
Time well spent is good investment
Time wasted in good company
Is, thankfully, much the same.
Jun 2020 · 43
Memory
Lee Carter Jun 2020
Pretending to know where I am
While deeply lost in thought.
Holding on to what I can
And missing what I could not.
Lee Carter Jun 2020
With trembling heart and flickering flame
I'm guided by worry and followed by shame.

With each creaking step, grievous mistake,
I lose a bit more of the courage I fake.

I curse my bravado for coercing me out!
As it's slowly and surely replaced by my doubt!

Shaped by shadow and forged in gloom,
A devil is born to fashion my doom!

Behind every corner, window, and wall,
The horror draws nearer with hungering call!

"Hear me Villian, make yourself known!"
Any fear I pray I've kept from my tone...

Oh what madness for the midnight mind!
To seek a beast I hope not to find!

A terror- I know it! I'm confident and sure!
The apex of fright, in essence so pure!

A lashing tongue and eyes in rows,
Razor sharp teeth to feed on my woes!

Legs much too many and mercies too few,
My advent of fate has come for its due!

I wish not to witness the monster I've made
So I blow out my candle... and welcome the shade.
Apr 2020 · 70
Darkened Door
Lee Carter Apr 2020
To the darkened door I step
My invitation inevitable.
I wish to arrive fashionably late
And hope to be dressed for occasion.
I do not knock from fear of entry,
But rather that you won't be there to greet me.
Dedicated to Scotti
Apr 2020 · 144
Marionettes
Lee Carter Apr 2020
Some puppeteers perform upon their own stage.
A theater made by and for themselves.
They enjoy an act of selfish design
Then bow to raucous applause
From hands pulled tight by string.
Apr 2020 · 164
The Bishop
Lee Carter Apr 2020
"Blasted black bats in belfry!

They blight the blessed bells!

I am bedeviled by beasts born without beauty nor belief.

Break them from their borrowed burrow!

Banish them back to where beasts belong...

Beneath the boots of their betters."
Apr 2020 · 86
Color
Lee Carter Apr 2020
Are my skies dyed with melancholy?
Are these roses red with rage?
If fields can be greener on either side,
Then whose envy is the gauge?

Between the brightest blacks and darkest whites,
Grays a gradient of up and down,
Can I trust the amber in your eyes,
When mine are dog-**** brown?
Apr 2020 · 123
An Army for One
Lee Carter Apr 2020
In dark times...

Call upon comrade and brothers in arms.

Together, cheer and hold fast against ruin!

Take heart, you fight with friend and fellowship!

Link shields and brace against inner daemon

For yourself is an enemy one should never face alone.
Apr 2020 · 94
Night Person
Lee Carter Apr 2020
Tender light of gentle star
Splendid night by lunar measure
Loathe the shining kiss of day
Where busy work takes place of leisure.
Mar 2020 · 303
Sanctuary
Lee Carter Mar 2020
Did you revel in my exile...
Did you enjoy their praise?
Their blind belief that you would save them
At now, the end of days?

You ignore the mortals' plight
Yet still you are their king.
They love you for all they have,
But pain is all you bring.

Your sheep in shepard's clothing
Who claim they speak your words:
Lambs leading lambs to slaughter
A mass of bleating herds.

You take my wings for these wretched things
And proclaim that you're divine!?
I've come to storm your gilded gates
And claim what is truly mine!

So I have wrought a tide of brimstone,
A sea of hate and fire!
An ocean of forgotten ******
With song of sinful choir!

At the precipice of your paradise,
Meet me and despair.
War for a kingdom too large for you
And much too small to share...
Mar 2020 · 230
The Question
Lee Carter Mar 2020
Is this a question worthy of an answer?
I'm sure the sane answer is "no."

Is there poetry in farting into a milk crate?
Maybe not, but I'd very much like to think so.
Mar 2020 · 403
The Bramble
Lee Carter Mar 2020
I bumbled through the bramble,
****** and stings and me entwined.
They cut me deep and deeper
As I stumbled through the vine.

I fell out onto a clearing
Where I bled smally on the grass
And though this moment pains me
I pray to gods it lasts.

She sat above me,  beautiful,
Upon a throne of thorn.
Her supple frame caressed by they,
Yet remained untorn.

A lady or a fairy...
Or even better still!
A godess of those prickly vines
That wrapped around her will!

With every step the ivy squeezed
And yet I dare not care.
If she would waste but a breath on me,
I would not want for air...
Mar 2020 · 95
To Dream
Lee Carter Mar 2020
I walk with will into umbral dark.
Fly through broken boundary of tempered veil
To unknown worlds beyond description.
I mingle with a forgiven strangeness
And become both act and audience
In theater foreign and familiar...

Then I cruelly slip from such sweetened state
And wake and live so mundanely.
Mar 2020 · 146
Driving
Lee Carter Mar 2020
Fast lane or slow lane-
A life driven from the backseat
Is equally sure to crash.
Mar 2020 · 181
Ghouls
Lee Carter Mar 2020
Gangly ghouls and ghastly ghosts.

Grimy goblins, gremlins gross.

A graphic, grizzly gallery

Of grim and gruesome, giggling glee.
Mar 2020 · 102
Fool
Lee Carter Mar 2020
The mark of a true fool
Is not the lack of knowledge,
But the firm belief that he has
Nothing left to learn.
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