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Jamison Bell Jan 2022
I’ve read about it.
Seen it in the movies.
Watched other people experience it.
Somehow
I got left out.
They told me I would.
They said it was because I could never matter.
I thought about that for a long time.
While other kids were playing.
I was walking around wondering.
Why?
For a while there I thought that surely someone would come along.
A person to whom my existence would mean something.
Instead I got the four horsemen.
To whom I loved as deeply as I could.
I raged hard against the tides that sought to hold me back.
To prove myself worthy.
In the end.
No matter what I did, I was still of no matter.
I watched from the gutter as the four them made their ways.
My days are closing in on me.
I’ve isolated myself.
I know now I’ll never know how.
Or why.
So I’ve gone from wondering to wandering.
Up and down the cavernous halls of my thoughts.
I still have questions.
That can’t be answered.
Idiotic, insipid, nonsensical, cringeworthy questions.
What is it like to be loved? To be wanted around? To be desired? To be cared for?
To matter?
Someone once told me.
“It’s like feeling the sun on your skin, even when it’s raining.”
I’ve been cold for so long.
I didn’t even know being warm was an option.
Jamison Bell Aug 2019
There are jackals outside
The candle died and the clock mourned her
There are things we will never tell one another
Truth is a murderer of many things
The cat fell asleep on top of the pizza box
I still ate it
The pizza
What would happen to the light in your eyes
If you knew
Would they, could they get brighter
Or would they fade to black
Like we did
There are jackals outside
And I’m going out there
Nf3
Jamison Bell Apr 2022
Nf3
I never got that sunset with you and now my skin feels heavy. Auburn moons and crimson leaves, yes. Not one sunset though. Dragging my quill like an oxen with its plow, my hands as blind as they are always seem to find you.
Tell me again. While I can still hear you. As if it were a whisper from the other room. That something you say from under your breath because the power that keeps you from saying it is failing you.
It feels bound at times. As if hindered by barbed wire. Like a lamb that was frightened by the storm only to find itself ensnared. The more it struggles, the worse it gets.
Jamison Bell Jul 2019
I don’t care if you see me. I’d much rather you see you through me.
Don’t think me a fool. There’s no pedestal for you there.
Take solace instead. That there’s no guillotine either.
It’s just a tempest. A swirling **** of colors and lights.
You could say that it’s like watching the northern lights. While lying on a bed of nails.
And what you don’t see, that pangs me the most.
Is the capacity you have to make others feel better about themselves.
Just by being you.
Jamison Bell Aug 2016
I've watched the stars.
Pondered their journeys through time and space. Wondered what they could tell me of the past.
I've stared at the moon. Locked in its ecliptic dance as it plays with our oceans, hearts, and minds.
The sun too has held me in a trance. Apollos burden radiating incessantly against its own eventual demise.
All of these things so beautifully elegant in their mysteries. Enrapturing the imaginations of mankind for thousands of years.
I close my eyes to their wonder, beseeching them all to measure up to what I see in my minds eye. Forever enduring to fail despite the arguments they pose in opposition.
For when my lids are down and that smile stretches its arms across my face, they know. I am thinking of you and not a one of them could ever live up.
Jamison Bell Jul 2019
You’re a crack shack of a human being
I’m a **** lab of a human being
‘‘Tis not a mansion that gets built between us
Jamison Bell Oct 2023
We can explain almost everything.
Except the spark of life.
The consciousness of a living thing experiencing love and strife.
We don't know what it is.
Explanations are aplenty.
At best they're merely guesses.
Hence why we feel so empty.
So here's what I'm suggesting.
To help you figure it out.
Take a big step back
And literally f your own face.
Jamison Bell Apr 2019
It’s easy
When you have no strings
No ties to anyone
You just let go
And you fall through the days
You grow numb
Cold
Light becomes something to distrust
And nothing matters
So you wait, you long for relief
Sooner or later
You get tired of waiting
You shhh your heart
And you hope that the pain doesn’t follow you into death
Jamison Bell May 2016
I don't blame you.
I'm not sure I believe in blame.
Do you remember?
No. I've done my best to forget. And I might say I've done so wisely.
Why?
It's not worth it. There's no gain to be had.
What if there was?
Gain?
Yes.
Such as? Nye, don't bother. As I've said.
What if what was could be again?
It can't. Because it never was. I looked into her eyes.
And?
I saw the world unanswered, I saw the same stars I saw the first time I looked up.
So?
I didn't see me.
Jamison Bell Aug 2016
I wonder if anyone has ever thought about me as much as I've thought about them.
Jamison Bell May 2022
Love
It's the only thing I was ever good at
Just as the sun nourishes the dandelion
Just as the rivers guide the course of the lives that depend on it
I can see to it that her needs are met
If she likes a particular meal
I'll learn to cook it
Should she like the bed made a certain way
I'll see to it
I will listen and I will watch
So that when she cries
I'll know why
Should she need a smile
I'll find the joke
Crafting has never been my suit
Nor can I write her a song
Though there is that one thing
I can do
I can make her feel safe
Warm and loved
For as sure as the sun will rise
Not a day will suffer
Where she can question
Whether or not I love her
Jamison Bell May 2017
There's no rapture here.
No balm in Gilead.

Synaptic starvation.
A void within a void.

External stimuli extinct.
Internal stimuli forsaken.

To what then do I owe the pleasure?
If there's no pleasure to be had.

A loveless existence.
A spirit left to dry out over time in the pursuit of futility and meaningless exchanges of niceties and things need not said to people for whom we do not care at times we don't have to spare in a world left so cold to the idea that it could save itself if it only tried that it reeks of contempt and suffering.
Everyday people suffering and mired in the things that haunt their essence of being on a level they rather not have to contend with because they know the truth is anything other than what they hoped it'd be and any attempt at reconciliation would only be a foray into a vacuous madness.
So wrought with strife and teetering on an edge of a knife we choose instead to adopt the illusion that best suits our needs so that we can just muster enough strength get out of bed in the morning and swallow that bitter pill that we can only hope will help mask our never ending desire to see an end to it all so that we may at last find some peace whether in this life or the next.
Jamison Bell Dec 2017
I’d hang myself, if only I could find the end of my rope
It’s tangled up in whiskey soaked thoughts
Everyday is a new measurement. Another step I don’t want to take
down a poorly lit hallway
I can’t see before me and I don’t want to look back
I do anyway
Under flickering fluorescent lights
Eyes squinting through stale cigarette smoke
Nothing
Always nothing
Jamison Bell Jun 2017
45 years just wasted
Not a **** thing to be shown
Wandered in on a whisper
Leaving with a groan

No wife, no house, no savings
No love to write about
Nothing ever ventured
No hope but lots of doubt

Heed this little warning
Lest you end up where I lie
Find and hold your love
Long before you die

I go now to the shadows
For I never had the light
Soon to be forgotten
Cause to live I had no right
Jamison Bell May 2019
How many times do I have to watch you throw away what I’d **** for just to survive?
Jamison Bell May 2019
You want the rub?
You want to know why it’s so ******* ones self funny?
When you come at me,
To tell me of your hatred for me.
I don’t hate you.
Because I agree with you.
Every word.
Jamison Bell Jun 2016
So wherein do they lie, those things too often unsaid?
Have they yet come true?
Or should they be left for dead?

Time will stumble by and death may come to call.
Don't invite him in.
Just let him wait out in the hall.

Back to those things that were always on your mind.
Bearing little fruit.
These thoughts when left behind.

I just don't see the reasoning for harboring such thoughts.
Tying up my dendrites.
Twisting them in knots.

I beg of you to speak your mind I see the beauty there.
Apathy be ******.
I for one do care.
Jamison Bell Aug 2019
Foresight isn’t knowing what’s going to happen before it happens. It’s having learned from the past.

The artic Fox has a higher success rate in hunting mice when it’s aligned with the earths magnetic field. Now with that in mind, how can you stand there and tell me I don’t love you.

I fixed the immigration issue. I also fixed the patent office issue. I solved homelessness as well. While fixing the immigration issue I also solved the nationwide nursing shortage. I fixed Detroit. I also created a new fad that should stop the brits from slaughtering so many sharks. And I found that if you make it a habit to not say “go **** yourself” when asked about your day. People are less likely to want to hit you.

When I close my eyes
She’s drenched in blue light
Like that of a distant star
That died long ago
When I opened my eyes

When I was 7 I was sitting by myself on the balcony of my dads apartment. I watched the kid that lived across the parking lot in another building take out his trash.
He carried out four bags. Him and his little sister were left alone a lot like my brother and I.
I didn’t like that kid much. I remember that. His little sister was nice. She’d play on the swings with me. I think he was around 12/13. She was my age.
The next morning there were cop cars everywhere. Policemen asking people questions. My dad later told me what happen. Turned out his little sister was in those trash bags.
Jamison Bell May 2023
I was eating this peach while putting together a pump and forgotten I'd already lit a burner when I said "***** it, I'm dead inside anyway" so I took a hit and started thinking about you in that time and me in that place and as soon as I finished that peach it dawned on me.
It wasn't that I wasn't good enough for you.
It's that I'm still not good enough for me.
So I went ahead and settled on the Apricot Kush because it keeps me from thinking about whether or not I made a mistake when I said "Can I get the salmon with a baked potato?" I mean I could have eaten my twin in the womb, I honestly don't remember her name Ellen I think anyway.
**** the night, **** the moon, **** everything that ends too soon.
Jamison Bell Jun 2017
What makes me sad.
Is knowing that on the day my pain stops.
Your pain will begin.
The day I die and suffer no more. Is day one for your suffering to begin. Unless of course you don't care. In that case. Best of luck to you.
Jamison Bell Nov 2018
I’m sorry brother
I know you don’t understand
You only want to talk
But the years were long and cold
I had to burn the bridge
To stay warm
You’re going to be ok
I made your decision for you
Robbed you of any say
For your own good
I’m not who you need me to be
And for that
I’m sorry
My hopes for you are sturdy
But I cannot be there for you
Jamison Bell Oct 2018
Before the snow falls
And you slip back into the folds of winter
And the sapphire of my world diminishes
Could I hold you
Like I did that time
Before
Jamison Bell Feb 2022
Some of us write from the heart
Some of us from the head
The thing we all have in common
Is one day we’ll all be dead

So we put our thoughts to words
Penning our woes and such
Silently screaming into the night
Using poetry as a crutch

If you’re lucky someone will hear you
Your words might strike a tone
Though most of us will go unnoticed
Forever remaining alone
Jamison Bell Sep 2018
I’ve written over a thousand poems.
I’ll probably write a few more.
Maybe I’ll stop tomorrow. Or maybe never.
I’ll write a letter to Death and ask her for more ink.
If she tells me to use my own.
Then I’ll write shorter poems.
But I’ll never stop.
Not until one of those poems hits its mark. And her heart weeps out of joy.
Not until it’s so beautiful that she cradles it like the starlight in her eyes.
Then and only then.
When she realizes just how much she means to me.
Will I ask her to do **** stuff.
Jamison Bell Nov 2022
Lie to me
Or
Tell me the truth

I wasn’t there
So
I wouldn’t know the difference either way
So
It doesn’t really matter
Jamison Bell May 2019
I never got to see my home
They told me about it
And I never got to feel the sand that looks like snow
I wonder sometimes
Who I’d be if I’d ever gotten to see it
That place where the ocean meets the sky
Perhaps that’s why
I never felt like I was where I belonged
Because
I never got to see my home
Jamison Bell Nov 2021
There are countless stories about love, triumph, and discovery. The story you’re about to read. Is about none of those things.

In a village not long ago, underneath a breath of snow. There lived a family of kinder sorts. Albeit slow, all good sports.

And every year the took a tree, from yonder woods, cut at the knee. They dragged it home, their latest ****. And propped it up against its will.

Then they’d sing and set it to light. Confused and scared this tree a fright. They’d sing a song and praise it’s glory. But this tree was to have a different story.

Along with more snow there came too a wind. A silence unknown began to descend. Across the valley, up and into the wood. What was to come would harbor no good.

It’s tracks were cloven like that of a goat. It leapt upon rooftops, mocking the moat. It’s hoof falls muffled by tops of white cotton. It took scent of the air, and found it quite rotten.

It made its way from cottage to cottage. It saw a man take a fruitcake to ****** frottage. It witnessed a woman snorting up snow. While another devoured her up from below.

Disgusted, our creature continued to search. It witnessed a friar defile a perch. It saw a young man go to bed with a priest. And four old lady’s that ******* about yeast.

Ole Mrs Goodhead was down on her knees. While men came and went offering cheese. Her husband the blind poor crippled fool. Thought he got lucky while a goat ate his tool.

Our creature repulsed, threw up on his tongue. And just about then the church bells were rung. In all the commotion he found his query. That one little tree, so tired and weary.

He kicked in the door surprising his host. Standing there naked, his **** between toast. Our creature scoffed and took hold of the tree. “You perverts and freaks, this goes with me!”

Their mother outback getting reamed, the children shouted, shrieked, and screamed. Creature cradling this tree under arm, ran into the wood away from the farm.

The townsfolk rallied, with axes and torches. Leaping from *** swings that sway on their porches. Naked and scared they marched toward the wood. Not a one of these folk knew what they should.

“You tree stealing goat you dare steal our hope. We brought along **** and a whole lot of rope.” They chanted and cursed threatening ****. You would’ve thought there’d be no escape.

Through the wind and the snow they soon saw a light. Clutching their axes and **** cheeks tight. They witnessed the creature replant the tree. Then it unzipped it trousers and started to ***.

The steam was rising from out of the snow. At the foot of this tree that then started to glow. It’s branches stretched and it grew a bit taller. Away from the *******, the drinking, and squalor.

The creature turned, addressing the court. It let out grunt, a huff, and a snort. “Who there among you dares to do this? To steal away this tree where I ****.

I spent my life ******* on trees. From rivers to mountains I **** where I please. Until one Christmas drunk off some cider. I collapsed and stumbled and woke up beside her.

I rewarded her presence by melting her snow, she paid me back with a warm growing glow. So every year I come here for *******. Getting just drunk enough to keep me from missing.”

The townsfolk still naked, some of them dead. Let out an “oh” and lowered their heads. “Please beast forgive us, we know not what we do. We’re ripe with chlamydia, and haven’t a clue.”

The creature still frothing and somehow still *******. Knew what it was the townsfolk were missing. He let go of his tool and reached his hands. Still naked and scared, they met his demands.

They started to sing they started out low, then their screeching started to grow. It cut through the valley like a wet **** in bed. Scaring the children, the wolves, and the dead.

Many years later, that tree grew in height. On Christmas Eve, they bathe in it’s light. They gathered around it ******* and singing. Throughout the valley the bells would be ringing.

Then one Christmas they’d gathered to see just how tall was their ******* tree. A storm rolled in, filled them with dread. Then it fell over and now they’re all dead.
Jamison Bell Dec 2021
I’m haunted by memories
Ghosts of those I’d put too much faith into
Chain rattling, crimson lipstick wearing, hopeful spirits
They dance about the decrepit ballrooms of my dreams
Scrawling on the walls
“Ketchup isn’t for hotdogs, you’ll never matter, and *******!”
I’d be lying if I said I don’t get sad.
Then though.
I pour another glass of whiskey.
And she reminds me.
That the spirits are right
Ketchup does not belong on a hotdog.
Jamison Bell Jun 2022
We break upon each other
Like two waves
One retreating, one forthcoming
Melting into one another
An ethereal dream
Where a thousand sunsets meet a thousand sunrises
Exposed like a nerve endings
Shapeless, we converge and fall apart again
Over and over
Fingers outstretched over an event horizon
Never quite losing sight of one another
Lost and found and lost again
Where will I find you when
Jamison Bell Dec 2020
They told me to be who I am when I got here
But I don’t know who that is
Can I step out for just a sec
And come back in again
Jamison Bell Oct 2017
Don't talk about them
Until you've been hungry
And I'm not talking about
I skipped breakfast hungry
I'm talking about
I don't know where my
next meal is coming from hungry
You need to suffer
It's the only path to understanding
You can't claim that you know what it's like to be alone simply because there was no one else in the bathroom.
It's when they don't answer.
It's when you reach out from the dark into the light and no one takes your hand.
After a while.
The light burns.
So you retract your hand.
And take comfort in the pain because it's the only familiar thing you have.
Jamison Bell Nov 2018
I don’t care about your driveway or your recliner
You only serve to make me sad
As you prattle on about your cold bathroom floor
Your Land Rover voice command not working
I can only sit here, out of respect
Though
In the back of my mind
Where I go in times like these
There’s a nice fire, a lamp, there’s a chair and a window
I listen to El Campanella and watch the snow fall
She’s there too, reading Don Quixote I think
You, and your pettiness, are far away
Being seized upon by vultures and hyenas
Jamison Bell Nov 2021
I could have stayed silent my whole life,
And the outcome would’ve been the same.
Jamison Bell Oct 2018
You call yourselves poets
Artistic souls that see the world through the eyes of angels
Filleting their feelings like strips of cod, laying them out before a market of other poets
The air in here forces me to scoff, to gag on the air of over embellishment.
I pen as well, but not as well
I’ll admit to that
Over a thousand poems can be arrested to me
Though I do not call myself a poet
No
No my hapless ink stained celestial bound brethren of disdain and misery
I am a mad man.
Always desperately trying to find the right words
Frantically mashing away as if my fingers were trying to stomp out a ****** fire
Trying to keep my fingers busy
Lest I leave them be
They’ll **** me
Jamison Bell Oct 2017
I went away
One fine day
To find you
Never there
''Twas a dream
It would seem
To think
That you would care
Jamison Bell Feb 2022
I wake up with a cigarette clinging to my lips like a wee man hanging from a cliff.
I relieve him momentarily by swilling a beer.
I peel myself off my leg and hope my aim is true.
If my leg starts getting wet.
I know something’s off.
General Tso stops in for breakfast whilst I judge the breast of the weather *****.
Fill up the worlds tiniest salad bowl before setting fire to it.
My eyes redden like morning suns before an afternoon storm.
There was something I was suppose to do today.
Or was it yesterday?
I’m hoping tomorrow never gets here so that I don’t have to stress about whatever it was I forgot.
Imagine that?
Wishing for death as opposed to having a memory return.
**** yeah.
Cast some thoughts into the ether, burn a bridge, and stare into the sun for a while.
One more cigarette before bed.
One more night alone.
Jamison Bell Jul 2022
A single leaf floats alone down a crystal brook.
Shimmers of sunlight and mossy shorelines.
In my youth,
I'd imagine myself on that leaf.
From that perspective
the world could remain as it is.
While at the same time,
be new to me.
A super positioning of perspective.
The world being two different things at the same time.
I didn't see this tiny version of me as adventurous.
Gripping the edges of the leaf, wind blowing through my hair, staring excitedly at what lies ahead.
Nope.
In fact, I was sleeping.
It seems no matter the perspective,
I'd just as well not be there for it.
Jamison Bell Apr 2022
Is it a measure of strength, resolve, or stupidity?
To say I love you.
Knowing full well,
you’ll never hear those echoed back.

Now I’m just an old man.
Waking up everyday.
Heart in hand.
Holding it up to the sun.
Only to watch it pass me by.

Not much will be said about me.
Maybe a passing thought.
Though at least it can’t be said
That I didn’t love
Jamison Bell Feb 2022
Somebody once wondered why happiness was so fleeting. Until someone else pushed them off a bridge because they wouldn’t shut up about it.

It left me thinking. I put down the Chihuahua I was punching and began to wonder silently to myself. Perhaps that person was onto something.

Perhaps happiness is fleeting so as to be appreciated more when it happens. Like a sunset after a thunderstorm or a ******* from a ***** hobo.

Could perpetual happiness survive the world we live in amidst the ruin of so many? Doubtful save for the ignorant and that ***** ******* giving hobo.

I think, sometimes. That there is a genuine happiness to be found in balance. That soft spot between the sheets of safety and security. But not the wet spot.

It’s all a derivative of the choices we make and the sacrifices we endure. This ideology of happiness is obtainable. Just probably not for you because you ****.
Jamison Bell Jul 2017
It's in your nature, so I'll forgive you.
You are human after all. It is intrinsically not your fault. So do not look to me for judgement. There by the grace of god, go I.

You're going to lie. You're going to cheat and steal. You'll manipulate, cast aside, accuse, and destroy people.

You'll do it for love.

Love will be your justification.

It's what we do. We're not swans. We're human.
I thought of this while putting anti itch cream on my feet for reasons I should probably see a dermatologist.
Jamison Bell Aug 2017
I'm not sure what I came here for.
Are the likes and views for keeping score?
Am I here to appease the masses?
To see if they'll toast me and clink their glasses?

Perhaps I'm here just for me.
If I keep writing perhaps I'll see.
That maybe what you said was true.
That I should write for me and not for you.

The fact is, I don't write for us.
My words aren't even worth the fuss.
They're merely the results of a mysterious need.
A task, an urge, a dastardly deed.

I guess the point I'd like to make.
If even only for point making sake.
I'm not writing for likes or even I.
It's just something to do until I die.
When I was three I broke my grandmothers hip. True story. Never told anyone that.
Jamison Bell Oct 2019
It’s hard for me to explain to you exactly why I’m here
Just take a hit off this bowl and I’ll try to make it clear
I really have no idea
I was kinda hoping you’d tell me
Jamison Bell Jun 2017
The sound of a ceiling fan not properly installed.
The smell of steel and iron on a hot day.
The taste of salt.
Walking through a cemetery as the sun goes down.
Piano music.
Do you know why I love these things?
None of them remind me of you.
Jamison Bell Feb 2019
The fireflies don’t needs us, they’re going to light up anyway
Nor does the moon care for our worship
Just as the sun rages alone and in vain in a corner of the universe
And time walks past us in shadows of memories
I don’t need you to love me, for me to love you
Jamison Bell Mar 2022
Candle wax and sweaty backs
Empty packs of butts
Balled up pants, and a passing glance
What more could there possibly be

Empty bottles the hard **** waddle
And the chicken got left out
Your kid is crying, I’m over here dying
Surely we are blessed

A morning beer dost make things clear
Underneath that callous sun
A new day calls I scratch my *****
Truly this is heaven
Jamison Bell Sep 2022
then there was that time you needed help
you reached out from the dark
and couldn’t find my hand
because it wasn’t there
my absence wasn’t apathy
it’s just that I can’t presume to think
that it’s my hand you wanted to find
Jamison Bell Nov 2018
I’ll tell myself not to look back.
That there’s nothing there.
Nobody to wave me goodbye.
Still though.
I will.
And I’ll have to reconcile with that part of me that is laughing his sick ****** head off.
So in spite of his laughter.
I’ll stare at the shoreline.
In defiant hope that someone.
Someone will come down to say goodbye.
And he’ll keep laughing as the shoreline fades off into the horizon.
And I lower my head.
Resigned to his eternal torment.
This devil on my mind.
Jamison Bell Jul 2019
When the hammer hits the primer and the gods ask me what I’ve done. And my last breath leaves me to join the breeze headed for the shores. I’ll tell them that I found my answer. My answer to the question that has no answer. My singularity. I’ll tell them I found you.
Jamison Bell Jun 2017
No rapture greater.
No peace more exquisite.
A friend, an enemy.
Comforting when contained.
A demon when set free.
In the absence of love.
My friend the flame
Jamison Bell Aug 2023
I don't know exactly what it is that I'm looking for.
I just know it's not here.
My gut.
My guts are telling me that I have to wait.
So. I'll smile for you. And if you play your cards right.
I might even write you a poem.
Just know, understand.
I'm not here for me.
I'm here for you.
If it were up to me.
I'd be anywhere else than here.
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