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Jeremy Betts Jun 2024
Love me for me
or
Bow out gracefully
Schedule to leave me be
For the rest of infinity
If you're not going to do it discretely
And sever the ties neatly
I beg you to erase me entirely
Label me the falling tree
And I'll go quietly
Consider that a final promise from me
Or a threat if need be
Depending on if you need me to be the enemy
If there's any particular story
You're lookin' to re-weave back into your flippant memory
Then sure, feel free,
Go ahead and rewrite history

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jan 24
Things are bad and getting worse
And what's worse
Is this stagnant curse
One maybe set from birth
But who knows
All I know
Is it can't lead to the back of a hearse
First things first
And for what is worth
I need to find my worth
But while searching for said worth
I find myself dying of thirst
Realizing life can't be reversed
Opportunity dispersed
I have to accept the empty
Path I've traversed
And acknowledge the wasted good karma
Will never be reimbursed

©2025
Jeremy Betts May 2024
Be free
Of this family curse
That is me
It'll only get worse
You'll see
What emerges first
And agree
Not to be coerced
A "we"
Will definitely die of thirst
Time can't be
Truly reimbursed
The key
Never start to converse
My company
Not even close to worth
What you'll be
Forced to traverse

©2024
Jeremy Betts May 2024
A fumblin, bumblin'
Waste of skin husband
No one's going with me,
I mean him,
As an option
*** happened?
A premature has been
Similar to the ******* situation
Uh,
So I've heard people sayin'
Get the list of con's reigned in
A list of pro's has never been
Mention every sin in confession
But where to begin
Actually, here's a better question,
Would it even matter in the end?
Let's see what happens when I,
I mean he,
Begins to pretend
If faked long enough can it change the trend,
Or push it all beyond the mend?
Uhhhh, of course, you know,
I'm actually askin' for a friend...

©2024
Jeremy Betts Sep 2022
We have more in common than you might think, from way back when, we've all been a slave to the system
This isn't some All Life's Matter nonsense to gum up progress, it's just an explanation of the MO of our nation
It went from skin to the dollar amount you bring in, it's my history too, no appropriation
How is it that I don't fit in being that I'm part Native American, must be the other part of me that's an Irish man

They stole you then stoud you and demand you comply to tilling stolen soil using the same regurgitated lie
You were forced to work, we were forced to die, you deserve reperations but unironically so do I
You look at me and just see another white guy, I'm a perfect example that history can't always be seen by the naked eye
Never forget the why, we're being forced to hide the cry as they rush to rewrite themselves as the good guy

Sectioned off ghetto and reservations put in place for the preservation of the notion only the white survive and thrive
Every second of our life the truths been uncovered and streamed live, no need for a deep dive
But they still claim to be blind to the red stained streets from this perverse and nonconsentual mass blood drive
Their stories never jive but the hive mentality rules, allowing bigotry and hate to always revive

I want to Hulk out, often feel I'm about too, but what's that gonna do, it'll only prove we're as savage as they say
They are waiting for the avalanche to fall any day so they can justify putting us away, barking at us to just sit and stay
Is there another way, how can we drag this from out the shadows and into the light when there's only perpetual grey
Allowin' us to say what we gotta say hoping then we'll go away, how many marters will it take before we're no longer prey?

Question charitable blankets, pass on the boat ride, how we suppose to trust when every handshake is a lie certified
A bona-fied villain willin' and able, fully capable of genuine genocide screaming gods on their side
If there is a god and he does come back he better watch his back or run and hide
They lack morals of any kind, replaced with blind pride, he'd undoubtedly be crucified in a fashion not only justified but glorified

I know you can't fight hate with hate, that'll only perpetrate this disastrous fate
But all we hear is wait, the time is never right but always near and once it's here they'll be glad to open the gate
But if we keep rattling the cage they'll have to keep pushing back the date, so we wait
But how much do they think we can actually take? Maybe they're just waiting for us to finally break

©2022
Jeremy Betts Jun 2024
I know I've said I hate it but I love it at the same time
Two heavy hitters jockeyin' for position in the same mind
It'd be a high noon showdown in a different timeline
I'm fine,
You ever hear that slip my lip just know that I'm lyin'

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 2024
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
Jeremy Betts Jan 18
I had a dream last night
About suddenly waking up
But the dark had engulfed the light

Gone was the fight
Both sides giving up
On simple wrong and right

I'm awaken to a primitive plight
Ageing but not growing up
Somewhere out in the multiverse I might

Forget reaching the highest hight
It's not looking up
Not a single goal in sight

The futures not too bright
It's burning up
While we argue who hit ignite

It's too much to take onsite
No throwing up
Only ingest a small bite
Maybe it will be alright

©2025
~ Villanelle ~
A fixed-form poem consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, thus containing nineteen lines. A villanelle also follows a specific rhyme scheme using only two different sounds.
ABA (x5)
ABAA (x1)
~
The word Villanelle comes from the Italian word villanella, which means "rustic song or dance".
~
Jeremy Betts Nov 2024
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 Feb 2024
It's true, I usually don't know what to do
What if I'm not around long enough to follow through?
Never know if my way or the highway is the right way
What did that sign say?
Will it be possible to recognize this impending last day
Even if just a day before it's referred to as "Ah shiit, is that today?"
This is foul,
Where do I go and what do I do now?
And just because I know what to do doesn't mean I'll comprehend the how
Who in their right mind could stand here and say they could handle the architecture and atmosphere of so many types of conflicting fear?
Who's the stranger with the black soul looking back at me in the mirror?
I wish it was clearer
But there's never a gene around ever
Take note that not every question has a viable answer
While some answers only raise more questions after filtering through questionable ******* banter
That's why there's a little manic in the laughter
And a wave of panic soon after

©2024
776 · Sep 2024
~•§•~ Alone ~•§•~
Jeremy Betts Sep 2024
The truth's often miss worded
Proof's too easily distorted
While trust gets quickly depleted
Then misery must be begrudgingly greeted
Good is historically related
To every bit of evil it created
As inner battles get heated
Dangerous thoughts are left untreated
Inner voices can't be silenced,
Only ever quieted
Insecurities refuse to be defeated
After hope has permanently retreated
Alone,
And on your own
Until the cycle is repeated

©2024
Jeremy Betts Sep 2024
There's no light
There's no end to this darkness
I still fight
But I no longer proclaim, "I got this"
Out of spite
I continue this meaningless process
In spite of
Just about every swing being a miss

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jan 2024
I'm not afraid of dying
I'm afraid of the shame from trying

©2024
Jeremy Betts Aug 2024
Does it look like I care?
No sir
Easy answer
But you can't see in here
Unaware or pretender?
Oblivious or clueless?
Neither
I don't make myself clear
To the goings on between each ear
What takes over top tier?
It's all fear
I checked there earlier
There's plenty of that here
A hypocrite because took second chair to fear
I let it steer,
Did nothing as it ground through every gear
While telling others of the inherent danger
Watching it veere right before approaching what I'm after
I can only look in the rear view or side mirror
One shows issues catching up,
The others closer than they appear
A hard knock heir
There's not a lot to envy in here
I don't have it in me to care
If I could I probably would, I swear

©2024
Jeremy Betts May 2024
I deleted the phone number
Along with every picture
All the things bought together
Every single reminder
And while erasing memories never gets easier
I forget to remember
That it's so much harder
To open up to anyone, ever again
But thankfully it isn't never

©2024
Jeremy Betts May 2024
I can't do what you need me to do
Not naturally capable
Unable to be who you want me to be
Impossibly impossible
I might fight the fight you wish me to fight
Adrenaline is incredible
Shouldn't have to bow or bend to your will
Especially if we're equal
I refuse to kiss the ring like you're expecting
Laughably satirical
This polished **** won't gleem like you'd like it too
Completely unreasonable

©2024
Jeremy Betts Dec 2024
I went looking for revenge
I only found the edge
Of good and evil
Teetering on the steeple
What side will it fall?
That's anybody's call
The victorious write the history
Leaving moral a pointless remedy
The loser is always the enemy
But how often does victory,
Align with the righteous?
Glory is told despite this
The innocent pay the price
Propaganda paints it nice
So the mindless can sleep easy
But what's that mean for you and me?
Simply put we all fall in line
Regardless if yours starts or ends in a different place than mine

©2024
Jeremy Betts Dec 2024
Don't have to acknowledge the sty
When we're all blind from an eye for an eye
~•§•~
There's a broken heart in every lie
A loose thread in every tie
~•§•~
Look and you'll find failure in every try
The hardest question proposed or answered is,
"Why?"
~•§•~
Why does what I apply
End up needing an alibi?
~•§•~
Ignore those that only supply
Some self serving reply
~•§•~
Life is something you can't defy
Walk your own path and fry
~•§•~
Don't worry if you can't fly
Only gods live in the sky
~•§•~
They're probably getting high
Just to f*cking get by
~•§•~
Ghosts can still cry
But the dead inside can't seem to die

©2024
What shy thoughts run through your head on the daily, and twice at night?
Jeremy Betts Jan 2024
Good times are so few and far between
Hardly seen
Never lasting
If I never find another, what do you think that could mean?
Blink and you'll miss 'em
So I remove the eyelids, see, I can listen
And I don't sleep for a reason
I hear that's deaths cousin...
...it's not the weirdest thing to believe in

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jun 2024
Forever slipping, sitting at the bottom of the top of the food chain
Trying to stay dialed in, working on removing my latest stain while older ones still remain
Struggling with another rebuild from the ground up, "job well done" but never paid
One crucial thing was forgotten, no foundation laid
I've played and been played, gone when I shoulda stayed
Had my faith destroyed by the faithful though I've recently prayed
My mental health convinced me to refuse medical aid, at least by anyone trained
Stood and faced the death brigade firing squad and I'm the idiot who brought a blade
Witnessing the beginning of the end, acid rain on my parade
No wrongs righted, song and dance quieted, exposing the charade
A tailor-made masquerade, face the price when dues aren't paid
I fell to the fray, had to say, "today's your day Satan" but not to be a renegade
But because I'm pretty sure I make the man upstairs afraid
He hasn't answered any of the calls I've made

©2023
Jeremy Betts May 2024
If I'm able
I'll cheer you on
If I'm capable
I'll clap for however long
If you need just a little
I'll whisper you a song
I'll crack a funny riddle
Just to hear you laugh along
I care so very little of the battle
You're right, I'm wrong
Don't be bashful
The night is long
Perfect days are doubtful
But we'll never doubt where we belong

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jul 2024
Forever counting sheep,
Gotta be up to infinity
I'm sure though,
Any day now,
I'll get to see what my dreams might be

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 2024
My rock bottom
A bottomless pit
Terminal velocity reached
Left waiting for the floor to hit
All I can recall is the fall
I ready myself for the reality bit
Until I reach bottom
I can't pick myself up from it

©2024
Jeremy Betts Aug 2024
Another failure?
Sure
Stack it here,
On the left shoulder
The right shoulder
Is occupied by a boulder
Otherwise what do I care
Just next in the long line,
A tether,
To the newest nightmare
That'll transition seamlessly,
I swear,
Seemingly out of thin air
Into a more current,
Living daymare
I know the routine
But you can see the ware
You can count every tare
I can't hide the despair,
It shows up everywhere
I wasn't taught how to prepare
But have noticed each and every year,
Yeah after year,
Less and less people care
About that detail in particular
So I run perpendicular
To my failure
Maybe forever
Especially if I have to be
My own savior

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jun 2024
I sit outside alone
Trying to count the drops of rain
It helps to tune out everything
Well, everything but the pain

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 2024
What is this,
This twisting thing my face is doing
It feels so unnatural
My lips curling this way is disturbing
And they're doing it all on their own
What is this?
The corners seemingly defying me,
Lifting and contorting
I can't seem to stop it
People are reacting,
Though not retracting
What is this?
Ah, nevermind,
There it goes,
Quickly spoiling,
Back to all stale looking
Back to the real thing
Let's promise to never do that again
No more of this...
...ever

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 2024
"I wish I may
I wish I might
Have this wish
I wish tonight"

What is the wish I wish,
To a mostly empty sky?
There is none
There's never one
I instead hold up
My carved up wrists
Eight feet high
And I don't wish,
I cry the question why
To no reply
"Same as last night" I sigh
Then wish the moon well
Before my last goodbye

©2024
Jeremy Betts May 2024
Please know that;
I
Don't want to live
But I
Don't want to die
So I
Become a captive
Deny
My modus operandi
The lie
Is naturally aggressive
Can I
Adapt on the fly
Can't I
Be illusive
'Till I
Can answer the why
So I
Will try objective
A good guy
Give it a collage try
Then I
Become reactive
This stye
Permanently in each eye
I try
But the mole hill's massive
And I
Still have no answers to why
I cry
That's all I have left to give
Still I
Knew better than to be believe in somethin' like an eye for an eye
But who am I?

©2024
Jeremy Betts Apr 2024
If you care promise to never let me know
Never turn around, never let it show
Don't point out the stretch that turned friend to foe
It's far too late to pray it ain't so
But nothing was nurtured, allowing nothing to grow
So, if you want to stay please, for me, tell yourself no
And just go

©2024
751 · Nov 2023
~•§•~ Can't ~•§•~
Jeremy Betts Nov 2023
I can not do it, I can't
Did everything one is supposed too and still failed
Wasn't expecting to faceplant
I wanted it, prayed for it, dreamed about it and it sailed
My plea rang out like a chant
Gave up? I played to the buzzer, when the buzzer sounded I trailed
All hope I was forced to recant
Before I knew it I blew it, my loss was unveiled

©2023
Jeremy Betts Apr 2024
A lost grip,
Another familiar slip
Running parallel with a predictable confidence dip
Regardless of every other absorbed hit
No one's record is perfect
It was bound to become evident
Taking a toll
Beginning to show
Worried life will dole out more trouble than one should be expected to tow
Stashed in the back of a mind is the knowledge it's possible
Work to avoid the void of a logic loophole that feeds the unreasonable
While acknowledging life cares so very little
About a big ol' white flag run up a pole

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jan 19
I wanted so bad to be done with the fight
I no longer cared 'bout who's wrong and who's right

©2025
~ Couplet ~
A pair of consecutive lines of poetry that create a complete thought or idea. The lines often have a similar syllabic patterns, called a meter. While most couplets rhyme, not all do.
~
The word Couplet is French for a "little pair"
~
Jeremy Betts Aug 2024
"Follow your dreams"
Well, okay
My dreams are nightmares
Rather not bring them into the light of day
I don't see the benefit
But anyway,
I'm on my way
When I crash and burn
Then what will you say?

©2024
Jeremy Betts Dec 2023
I've only just begun to begin the beginnings of what's to come
They told me it couldn't be done and if it could it could never be undone
Reinforced the foregone conclusion that I sure wouldn't be the person to get it done
Maybe I'm a human counterfeit, a blasphemous false prophet, either way the unchosen one
A complete waste of profit, a wayward prodigal son on the run
With a set of wings designed for Icarus, the parable goes over my head as I race straight at the sun
Swung for the fence and got my bell rung, if there's no brain damage it's at least gonna swell some from the concussion
*******, would you look at that, they were right, it can't be undone
Realization hit as the last song was sung, forced through a cancerous lung
As the dung that fills me spills freely over my tongue on to everyone
A headache for some, fun for no one, ask anyone

©2023
747 · Jun 2024
~•§•~ Bet ~•§•~
Jeremy Betts Jun 2024
I try to show 'em how it's done, no one's there to hold my beer
I wonder why I really care
I know it's never gonna matter
I would bet money I don't have on the fact it'll never get better
So I never concern myself with later
After the first couple pages flipped through a calendar
You'll never find me there
Most I know will cheer
Saying, "I told you so dear"
Now everyone's a future seer
Go figure

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jan 2024
I got a *** to **** in but this **** in this ***,
It's all I got
When confronted with that Eminem talk, that proverbial one shot
I gotta stop saying, "sure, why not?"
First of all, what a crock
Secondly, IT'S FUUCKING NOT!
Forgot a lot but never lost the plot
Though I find myself oblivious to subplots a lot
Flames are hot, can't say the left sink handles not
But the one with a label is not the one too hot too handle,
Lessons learned on the spot
Connecting lines, lost a dot
...gotta be a 'bot...
Fasten a sloppy slipknot, keep it taunt
Toss it up over the branch to swing from, now I have a forest to haunt
Awake or asleep, absorbing the same onslaught
What's fake, what's not?
Sunken eye socket, looking gaunt
Believe it or not, it's only ever been just an ink blot
Write my theory in ransom font
Look for the proof, there's a lot
Go one step further than you were taught
Always remember it could all be for not
That's why you'll find me on a canvas cot of rot to rot in the back corner of Salem's lot
A set with a pre dug spot for a later point in the plot
That is if I can survive the death scene in the pilot
AKA a nobody that not just somebody but everybody forgot
Only thing that sticks around are the demons I fought
Tell me, whatcha got?

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jun 2024
Thoughts refusing to leave yesterday
Won't stay out of tomorrow
Aware of the price one might pay
For lingering in past sorrow
Or fearing a role one might play
In a future no one could know
Becoming oblivious to the passing of every present day
Standing at a crossroad like, "where'd today go?"

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 2024
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 Jun 2024
Believe me you
I'm tired of hearing me too
I'm ready for this era to be through
It's sad to see in both you and me that the same resentment aimed in the same direction grew

©2024
Jeremy Betts Oct 2024
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 Jun 2024
I don't feel at home
In my own skin
I run from ghosts
I do not believe in
To live and love
Has not been win win
I'll have to hang upside down
The next time you ask me to grin

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jan 1
It's twelve something in the morning
A vague block of time past
The empty celebration
I meander outside
Hopelessly alone,
Just me and a cigarette
And when it burns out,
No longer lit
I'll then yell and scream
Louder than I can
Untill my voice gives up on me too
Finally leaving me
And I can no longer
Even call upon a whisper
As I make the biggest decision of my life...
...at least up to this point...
To go solo for what's left of this venture
Where I hope to discover
Me
The entity
That I've heard called Jeremy

©2025
Jeremy Betts Apr 2024
How does it always find me?
Easy,
It is me
At the very least it's in me
Darkness is part of this story
And it's not something to envy

©2024
Jeremy Betts Aug 2024
More times than not,
The hero in me
Trips over the zero in me
I get caught,
Tangled up in the calamity
Of this often-overlooked emergency
A played-out plot,
So there's no urgency
I already know the worst in me
I don't pick my spot,
Never holding back what I let people see
Keeping me under wraps was getting especially tricky
I don't know what I wanted, or what I thought
But this is what I got,
Me,
My own worst enemy

©2024
Jeremy Betts Sep 2024
This habitual
Hypocritical ritual
Keeps me cynical
The biggest battle's internal
A raging war roaring eternal
To vile for an example
Dying inside is literal
Allowing the visual
To be topically minimal
Though the condition is critical
A pitiful cry for help comes out in a trickle
Subliminal and lyrical
The unusual becomes typical
With the refusal of a label
There's no removal of the painful
Every attempt has been futile
Life is miserable
When love is conditional

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jan 2024
This psychosis is flaring up again, most notably with the upper hand
Time after time and once again I find no rhyme or reason
That thought process, seemingly by design, is unfathomably barren
Scared of the transformation I know has already left the station
That's it there, right over yonder, comin' 'round the bend
Resistance is futile, it's a lesson in repetition to keep runnin' with no traction
No huntin' license needed for this "only fools rush in" expedition
The lethal weapon method preferred over the non-lethal stun gun option
As I set up and execute my own personal character assassination
And blame it on what's always been a continuous open season on who I am as a person
Stating it was the residents in my cranium livin' rent free from conception
Leaving out the moment I stepped in and fast forwarded this ****** Doo-Benny Hill situation to the end
You can still see the evidence of the all out mutiny and treason from within
Venomous hospitality, venomous quips, blue lips the reaction to the poison
The exact one found on the jagged edge of the rusty iron driven into broken skin
Just an oh to familiar back stabbing incident, another rerun
A web can be spun but I'm the only common thread...

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jun 2024
I have a fantasy
That you'll see me
And actually
Probably
Possibly
One day maybe
Want to join me
In the biblical sense obviously

©2024
Jeremy Betts Sep 2024
She advertised everything I wanted
Upon purchase it was nothing I needed
If only there was more time allotted
The warning signs could've been heeded
With the foundation now rotted
I'm reseated all alone and resented
Not fully unexpected,
But fully defeated
Deflated and almost deleted
Then the process gets repeated

©2024
Jeremy Betts Nov 2024
Just because you lost
Does not mean you gave up
Being held hostage by your own thoughts
Does not mean you surrendered
Coming undone and falling apart
Does not mean that you are then broken
Finding it hard to love yourself
Does not make you unworthy of love itself

©2024
Jeremy Betts Jul 2024
Is there inherent good in people?
Who's to say,
Nothing is that simple
With little to no meaningful example sample
One's left to guess what to shed and what's essential
For those not raised to be capable
Those who struggle with both an internal and external battle
Or wound up with a broken porcelain bone handle,
It's hard to shake the fragile label
And always surprising who is willing to use it as ammo
There is good, there is evil
Most linger somewhere near the middle
Remember though,
It's not that simple

©2024
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