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I've heard people are strange
When you're a stranger
A lesson learned
Only as you grow older

Faces look ugly
When you're alone
My past proves
No one pays no mind to what's shown

They say women seem wicked
When you're unwanted
My truth is I've wasted
All the time allotted

Streets are uneven
When you are down
Seemingly impossible
To find solid ground

The strange
Have faces they hide in the rain
It's strange
Couldn't be bothered to remember my name

Are you strange?
Am I strange?
Who isn't strange?

©2024
Can I tell you my dreams?
Will you stick around long enough to understand what each means?
Should I skip over the nightmare scenes
That flicker through like 8mm on pull down screens
While the essence meanders by like dust through projector beams
Two extremes
Two cerebral regimes
Strange themes
Nothing's as it seems
Importance only found beyond the streams of screams
I think maybe I won't mention my dreams

©2024
Don't ever let 'em see
Don't ever let it show
As men in this society
We can't be emotional
So bury it all, don't let it be known
That mental health is what it stole
Stick to the script
Know your roll
Even though living like that
Is beyond impossible
You don't want to upset
The status quo

©2024
No more
No more
No more
No more
I'm going to get milk and smokes from the corner store...

©2024
I wish you were a better liar
Because I'm able to see right through
This half baked gaslight fire
"It's not me, it's you" you spew
Then sit back and admire
The hell you put me through
Knowing your favorite reaction's about to transpire
A knee **** wish for an end I feel is past due
Triggering thoughts that are dire
And when I think I've reached peak punishment
It's nothing new
To be kicked when I'm down
Pushing the bar ever higher

©2024
The more I try
The more I fail
A cattywampus scale
Creating this personalized
Dollar general designer hell
A fiery well
I'm always drawn back to
In a spell
And I keep mindlessly pushing
Circling like a carousel
Why pray tell?
I couldn't tell
But I'll tell you what,
If you know someone buying souls
I'd be willing to sell
If they pay well

©2024
Awful is
The particular sound my tears make when they hit the ground
You'd think maybe they'd be entertaining, coming from a clown
But misery echos a history and the volume can not be found
Any smile is a complex frown I've simply practiced upside down

©2024
Trying to find shades of myself
In the simple black and white
Trying to wade out in the middle
Of a basic wrong and right
Maybe I will or maybe I won't
But maybe I just might
I want to live in the twilight
There's too much darkness in the spotlight

©2024
I've run out of sheep to count
Leaving me wide awake through this living nightmare
Sowing a seed of doubt
Is life's refusal to even consider fighting fare
Each step taken while walkin' about
Feeds on the back of my mind, whispering, "do it if you dare"
Fueling despair
Instigating internal warfare
Causing excessive ware and tare
Resulting in a head of hair gone bare
And I'm forced to bite my tongue completely off
To keep from admitting I no longer care

©2024
Hope and reality
Those two often don't mesh
While need and want
Battle the sins of the flesh
I question self preservation
Tracing these scars made fresh
I find myself reciting,
"Comparison is the thief of joy"
As I  hold my breath up to the rest

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 12
No one paid no mind
To the tears from this man
That land at my feet
Creating a quicksand
I couldn't slow the rate
At which it would expand
Leading to the scars
At the base of each hand
I know what you think of me
But this wasn't part of the grand plan
I tried and as usual
I was not able
To help you understand
That I just wasn't capable
Of being a "real man"

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 12
{Political}

Just look around you and you'll notice that every day there's another suucker born
Another mother fuucker trying to pick around the thorn
But there'll never be breath blown through the victory horn and there won't be one to worn
Cause the new norm is news meant to deform not to inform
Leaving only torn fragments of real mixed with lies, a new truth is born
And it's one that defies the meaning of truth so it's armor for our thoughts and soul that must be worn

Cause it's forced upon every sense, attached to ignorance, illegal for an opinion to be drawn
It's a new dawn where rational thinking is gone, new laws signed in crayon
And it doesn't matter what paawn gets passed the baton when an election comes along
Cause it was years ago that this corruption spawn with a freedom slogan button on
And it's the divide that's grown from a line to a deep chasm of a wide canyon
That'll be our legacy, the legend we pass on till we feel defeat and meet the same demise that fell upon Krypton

It's crazy how we as a society love to single out one to staple blame on, makes it simple
But every man that's held an oval as his office might as well have been a floating carcass, dead in the water from the get go
Don't just agree cause I said so, that's half the problem yo, go do your own research bro
And know that they fear intelligence so go gather up a couple library's full
And don't jump in half cockeed like you only got one teesticle
Give it your all, fuuck being humble, we keep this shiit up we're all in fuuckin trouble
So burst this bubble, let it trasnform to rubble, forget being subtle
It's time to break huddle and be a factor in this much needed rebuttal
Screamed in the face paced on this ancient government scandal

But fuuck it. I'm only one person and not the one to change it cause I'm not perfect
But my imperfectly perfect plan sits perched in dust, never to be touched like it's deadly sick
Like a dripping diick, you pretend you don't have it 'til the graphic turns horrific
Then they say it's fake news but you're looking at the problem, starring derectly at it
But it's me that's ignorant and insignificant? I see it different you one percenter priick

I have a thought, just a notion, top of my head, tell me what you think
How long can we survive on the brink? On a doomed vessel destined to sink?
Holding the knowledge of where the boat is weak
Have known about the leak but putting off repairs till a metaphorical next week
We can see the old, rusty chain of command, it's obvious who's the weakest link
But if we the people aren't in sync (bye bye bye) we're all gonna drown in the drink
The spiked flavor-aid is laid out just waiting for evil to speak then give a sly wink
The nod to give the go-ahead once we're in to deep, swerling round the bottom of the sink

But there's more of us then them so I say we push back
Take the power that we hold off the rack, grow a pair of metaphorical baalls in a metaphorical nuut sack and attack
Put on Hatebreed as the soundtrack and dish out some payback
This is a call to all who can't just lay back like seats in a Maybach and watch the train skip off track
You don't need an almanac to predict this fact, the shiit storm is here, lead by a maniac
And if we don't take our country back then it's our fault, not theirs, that the future seems bleak and black
Let that neat little fact sink in and fill the crack like plaque stacked from years of no contact
Then get back to me when you see clearly that the peace tready that was eagerly signed so freely is actually a death contact

You can't dispute that once you've read the small print on the back of this sinister, sell your soul type contract
Gotta realize we've given to much slack but we do hold the rains, we must pull back
But mustn't hold back, can't afford to hoard the ball and record a sac
It's already fourth down and forever, standing in our own in zone taking the snap
A hail Mary is our only hope, but it might be crazy enough to be the key to the exact play we need to get the lead back
We lose this game and that's it, no respawn, no next season to fall back on, blap, extinction just like that
But fuuck that shiit Jack, I'll fight till my last breath escapes me, I ain't going out like that
Can't give up with my back turned to a population under attack
Cowering in a ransacked bomb shelter resembling the shrieking shack
Can't do it, no matter our differences no one deserves that
But I'm going to need all the help I can get to keep this flaming wreckage off the tarmac

So please, as soon as the Kodak filters been lifted and you see the mess that we've been gifted
You'll come join the million other kindred spirits that have enlisted
No longer tainted by politicians political poison, no longer frightened
Instead, an ability to sift through the ******* has been heightened
No blinders, just enlightened, a vision readjusted, a true path brightened
Natural senses sharpened like a tack then augmented, now you look frightened
All ready to attack and take our lives back, combat tested
And mother approved, well connected, you've been vetted
And we've all come to the conclusion that it's time this reign of terror ended
Way past time for this regime to be upended
Quickly removed and  permanently suspended
Only then can we drop the act, no longer a need to pretend we're not wounded
Only then can we be on the mend and begin the healin'

©2018
Here we go again. I've never reposted my own work but it felt appropriate...
Jeremy Betts Nov 12
****** if I do
****** if I don't
So congratulations
You win
I won't

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 10
Behind the smoke and mirrors
Are discarded dreams and futures
Next to the buckets of collected tears
And sound proofing so no one hears
The pain and agony
The curses and profanity
As I try to beat the life out of me
Feeling my will fade gradually
Laughing like it's funny
And should the curtain fall
Exposing the brawl
Shining light on it all
Then I'll
Be forced to make the call
To build a wall
Four times as thick and twice as tall
To keep out all a y'all

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 9
With the passing of the years
The good disappears
Take inventory,
What's left for me?
Only nightmares and fears
Lies for the heart, mind and ears
Wasted light-years
A husk of a man appears
Drained from fighting through iron bars and chains with nothing but tears
The blind leading the blind
While the blind steers
Grinding through all the gears
With the numbing effect of false help from **** and beers
A deluge of judgment from peers
The worst kind of souvenirs
And yet still my heart peers
Looking for new frontiers
Maybe after the glue adheres
From past repairs
But I'm racing an end that nears

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 9
They say if you don't love yourself
You can't love anyone
So please explain what I feel
For my one and only son...

©2024
Anyone?
Jeremy Betts Nov 9
I don't want to be this
I don't want to think any of this
It doesn't matter what I want
The choice I made will always haunt
I don't want to do this
I don't want to go through with this
But it is what it is they say
This is the price I must pay
The only comfort in this
Is that I won't remember this
When I come face to face
With the choice I've made to leave this cruel place


©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 8
Loving me
Is some kind of chore apparently
From what I see
It seems to be done begrudgingly
It is mostly
Basic surface level pageantry
So there is a "we"
But my end can be changed out if need be
The worst part has to be
That I can't help but give completely
And organically
Which always finds it's way around to biting me in the *****

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 5
Why are hearts
That feel so much
So easily broken?
I haven't misspoken
When I beg to not care
Beg to have nothing to clutch
Beg to take my last breath
Or have taken from me
My ability
To love and care so much
I plead "how is this fare?"
"Why can no one show me they care?"
"What is wrong with me?"
"Is there something I'm the air?"
"Why am I kept
So far away
From loves touch?"
The nothing's becoming
Far too much

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 5
I swear...
I didn't mean to **** the best of me
Or squash what I like in me
Yet here I stand
****** weapon in hand
My essence
Dripping down the blade
Like rain from a cloud
Or tears of a clown
Landing on the razors edge
A familiar sight and sound

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 2
I'm not going to lie
It felt good
I felt justified
Pouring the gas
Striking the match
And letting it fly
I even stood back
And watched the whole thing burn
Imagining the reflection of the engulfed bridge dead center of my eye
But I was young
I was hurt
I was beyond just a simple angry guy
And now so much time has passed
I find myself
Back at the charred remains
With a solitary tear forming in my eye
And you no longer on the other side
But one by one I still replace
Each piece of chard lumber
With iron and steel just in case
You too one day
Find yourself back at the same place

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 2
It takes to much to live
Collected from the start
'Till the wick can no longer be lit

All I have left to give
Is this mangled mess of a heart
And a broken spirit

Passive or aggressive
Lifes and bodies fall apart
Death is all we inherit

And death is possessive
No retort
Take the hit and grin and bear it

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 1
It's getting bad again
That feeling
That wanting
That almost need to give up

I don't know
If the glass is half empty
Or half full
I don't even see the cup

Being honest
I've begun to notice
That lately it takes far less
For these thoughts to develop

With 40 years of ammo
They are able to be relentless
And my shoddy defenses
Will not hold up

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 31
I want to barbarically remove my heart
And lay it like a horse head on the pillow next to you
Then challenge myself to get far away from you
Before the inevitable collapse from the lack of a heart

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 31
Can I unmelt the candle
That's flame was blown out by your passing through
Almost as if too rekindle
What I felt for you but with someone new
I wish my most potent wish
That it was anything close to that simple
But even a man who was taught how to fish
Can get lost and float away on a passing ripple

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 30
Lose lose
Or win win
I'll die on the hill
Of what could have been

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 29
No one will be there
To witness me leaping
But they'll line up in droves
To judge me and my chosen ending

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 29
It doesn't matter how much unconditional love I give
I'll never get it back
I'll never know that feeling
But it still doesn't stop me from giving it

©2024
I know this isn't technically a poem...
Jeremy Betts Oct 29
I don't want to die
But every night
I wish to not wake up
I wish to no longer fight

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 28
living life at the end of my rope
feet desperately hunting for solid ground
afraid of the day I won't be able to cope
when death knocks it doesn't always make a sound
i struggle to convince myself of hope
while the good side of life barely comes around
day to day is generally a slippery *****
if not sliding down
it's just 'round and 'round you go
on this rickety merry-go-round

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 28
I've never felt the comfort of being comfortable enough to be me
...
Do you know what that's like?
...
Like floating dead center of the deepest sea
...
And trying to ride a mangled bike
...
Like climbing to the weakest part of the tallest tree
...
Then stepping out to start the hike
...
I can't locate the key to unlock any different reality
...
Try as I might
...
So I struggle significantly to just be the Jeremy others want to see
...
When I don't even know if that Jeremy is someone I like

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 28
I'm not happy here
With you
Yeah you know it's true
You feel my destain for you

But you hate me too
You do
Don't even try and lie
I'm rubber, you're glue

So we sit in blue
And stew
Thinking 'bout revenge
This trend is nothing new

Then it's you get me
And I get you
The toxic back and forth
Means we'll never get through

It's just what we do
It's pathetic to
Those who have to see
What we put each other through

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 28
The stars will not align
Everything
That has ever meant anything
Is taken and I'm left with the rind

You can't combat loss
It will touch you
Change you and destroy you
There will never be enough fingers to cross

Didn't expect it to be easy
But this is too much
How do I go on?
The one thing my failures have in common is me

Life can always be worse
But that means it can be better
I'm not that trend setter
The is starting to feel like a curse

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 26
I don't know how else to say it
And you don't care enough to lie
Like an over explained comedy bit
Where the attention has run dry
You hiss
I spit
We both bit
Always right about to get
Into an eye for an eye
Where we'll both find
It's far harder
To point a finger
While we're both blind
Though we'll both try

©2024
Oct 17 · 192
Untitled
Jeremy Betts Oct 17
From the lonely side of the window
I watch you go
Your image distorted by the heavy rain
Or is that a downpour of liquid pain?
Either way and regardless you fade away
But I don't want to look away
Not interested in picking up the pieces this time
Back in this pit, I don't have it in me to climb
So familiar with heartache and heart break
I start to think that this love shiit is fake
It's okay, I feel right at home with painfully numb
My mistake was the lie I told myself,
That this day would never come

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 17
Could I have done more, yes
But I'm worn out at best
Sore by the pound and stressed
The more I try to get it back like before
The more I regress
I know the score,
I know what's in store,
What it is I'm in for
But sure,
Let's hear what YOU suggest?

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 16
My relationship with life is nonconsensual
Now-a-days, a cancelable scandal
The back and forth we share is not equal
My portion is shameful
Should have never taken it past casual
That's when it took control
Thoughts creep in of the unforgivable
Turning out the lights on this carnival
The last note I jot on my last thought pressed to vinal
Drop the needle at the funeral

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 15
I finally got my ducks in a row
Unknowingly setting up the spectacle
Of lifes trick shot variety show,
Taking them all out with a single arrow
Didn't even need to use a bow
And I land at another new low

©2024
I like the concept but couldn't get the words to form to my vision
Jeremy Betts Oct 15
Lost in my own mind
Trying desperately to find
A point to witch I can rewind
Or,
At the very least define,
A familiar moment that'll remind
That it's not always been a difficult timeline
And if I can do that I should be fine

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 15
I know what I don't know
Too afraid of the weakness I know it will show
So I can not let the world know
I don't know how I let myself fall so low
I do know I hate it here,
Basking in this dumpsters fires glow
I knew I had time,
It was a flash fire but the build up was slow
I know what they say,
But it's never as easy as letting go
If I could, what then?
That I may never know

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 14
I write this note
As I wrap this rope
One time around my throat
I don't want to choke
It'll be quick I hope...
...nope
I wish I could promise I won't
But I can't,
So I don't

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 14
Don't do this
Don't be that
Basically
Don't exist
Unless
You can do this
And you can be that

©2014
Maybe just a persistent thought more than a poem
Jeremy Betts Oct 13
I'd rather completely lack a memory
That functions fully
Then solely have this rapid fire slideshow pageantry
Of anguish and agony
Spinning wildly
Come by and see
A life lost with no death genre of tragedy
And if it's like they say,
If this is the only way,
The way it has to be,
Then maybe
Life is simply
Not for me

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 13
The purgatory of a cemetery
The calamity of duality
Mortalities catastrophe
Crematory trajectory
Anatomy of insanity
Assault and battery
The audacity of humanity
The profanity of actuality
And camaraderie with agony
The brutality of tragedy
Finds me at max capacity
Quit handing life back to me
Because frankly,
I'm done

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 13
I had a dream
That I was star gazing
And all the stars fluttered away
Like lightning bugs
From a disturbed field
And my true path was revealed
Then I woke up
And forgot everything

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 12
You sit on a throne of lies
Watching me struggle with your ladder of deception
Eyes don't always look for the disguise
Your particular ugly's deep under the skin
I fell for your generic guise
Can't help but fall in lust over and over again
Another broken heart is my prize
This is not love,
This is a forbidden sin
The apple I should have never bitten

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 12
Dangerous fleeting thoughts
That return far too regularly
Create the impenetrable bars
That keep my mind in captivity
That keep me afraid of me
That make me my own worst enemy
If I had a penny
For every
Scary thought
They'd be what buries me

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 11
You;
Lying,
Trifling,
Conniving,
Betraying,
Dual facing,
Manipulating,
Two timing,
Heart breaking,
Neglecting,
Affection lacking,
All taking,
No giving,
Love of my life,
Just know this one thing...
I'm awaking
To the wrong doing
I hope you realize what you are losing

©2024
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