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Jeremy Betts Mar 2024
I'll be better here sometime right before never,
I swear
Not trying to be clever
I'm being sincere
Just can't assign a specific timeline to recover
I've tried it,
Found it only helped set up the next failure
The one that's already lurking around each and every corner
I stand defiant, against my own self preservation order,
Almost daring it to leap from the darkness a couple corners sooner
I'm not trying to be negative either
Life is an iffy endeavor
But I don't not get it,
I can see it from the view of the average observer
It's gotta look like a recipe for disaster
But it's better than what I see in the mirror
Something I won't need a memory to remember
Branding me with this, scared flesh on each wrist,
A gut wrenching reminder
The kind that can only linger forever
Stalking me from the edge of what I'll be able to remember
But it'll get better...
...they swear

©2024
Jeremy Betts Mar 2024
Laying motionless on a riverbed,
Drowning at rock bottom constantly
I hate to admit it but
That's where you'll most commonly find me
No landmarks, no marked miles,
Got lost on the back roads to recovery
I finally pulled out of this nosedive of false certainty
Just to expectedly fall back into the same trajectory
Distractions follow closely,
Waiting to complicate the wrong actions I already make consistently
That's a disastrous recipe
That's what has made my present day a fraction of what I think it oughta be
This has to be far more than what I have coming to me
Like what I've repaid triggers karma's selective memory

©2024
Sadie Mar 2024
One day I will wake up weightless,
With a steady heart,
With rested eyes that will not cry.
One day I will have only good dreams,
Free from fear,
Free from sadness.
One day my mind will be calm,
My thoughts will be good,
My hands will be still.
One day I will live to be alive,
Not just out of spite or guilt,
Not just because I feel I owe it to my mother.
One day I will be here because I choose to be,
I will want to be,
I will hope to be.
One day I will be sorry for who I was in the meantime,
One day.
031024

Many times I tried to play CHESS…
To WIN, a player must CHECKMATE his/her opponent.
When the ‘king’ is in checkmate,
Then the game is OVER.

And checkmate doesn’t happen
Without a PREPARATION —
But TODAY I call it as a “PRAYperation”
Then, everything else will be added
As a RESTORATION.

For you CANNOT use your anointing yesterday
To FEED your soul for today…
Learn how to OBEY and SEEK the Higher King,
Then you’ll know whose SIDE are you in.
Bea Mar 2024
I love the feeling of emptiness in my belly as I walk the streets hungry

Stomach ****** in tight
Ribcage exposed as I force my shoulders back
My breathing strategic

Thinness is all I’ve ever really wanted
I crave it
brynna Feb 2024
rainbow curtains that smell of mint

gray sweatshirt my mother sent

suffocating but my airway is clear

where is the voice i want to hear?



i wish someone else could see

the poisonous air of room 11-B
another hospital piece
pierrot Feb 2024
it's always you, sweet child
you take the burn
beautifully
let it mark your hands
and feast on your chest
watch the flames make you recognizable again
coax the deepest wails out of charred, tired lips
oh my, sweet child,
how you've grown to love the fire
inspired by oscar wilde's quote "a burnt child loves the fire"
T R Wingfield Feb 2024
Mysterious Paradoxes

I just watched a man
take a token from the hand
of a life long friend,
again!
For the power of relief
from poison and pride.
A marker of 31 years
in recovery
from the hell
of addiction and drink.

Face Fear
face first
fearless and thorough from start to finish


“When I face fear, I’m given courage;
When I help my brother, I help myself.”


A third life is possible if the second try fails.
Even then it’s still the first:
3 in 1 like the ghost
and the father and the sun.
From our mother we are birthed
and led to find a guiding hand
and to help others who are lost
find the path and the light
and the love of a life
free from the powers
of persuasion by the devil
and his friends.

A simple solution -

Surrender to Win!

Amen… again
And again and again,
‘Til it ends.
It begins
In a place
Among friends;
One day at a time.
Everyday can be mine
If I find what I found
the first time I really tried.



Common solution
1005 old shell
11:19am
2-23-24
Notes from my second recovery meeting of the day.

Yeah man the struggle is real. I told him when I shared “… It makes me think, if you can do it for 31 years straight - I can do it for one more day.”

He gave me handshake and his number after the meeting and told me “I never did it for a single year… but I did it every day.”

I got a lot of wisdom out that room today. Wasn’t gonna make Alano on time, so I went old shell. That higher power keeps putting me right in my place I need to be every time man.

A reminder for the hard times that it’s just for today.
Unpolished Ink Feb 2024
The embankment is a river
of bottles in the sun
I've held them and I've kissed them
every single one
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