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Jeremy Betts Jan 10
A life with no safety net
Do I make it or will this be yet another instance where I don't hit the ground running, instead I splat flat on the pavement
Place your bet, I'll take that bet
Another tally mark added to my list of regret
I'm my own biggest threat and relentless as it can get
I feel preset to replay every horrible event
A looped cassette
Bad precedent after bad precedent set
Where is this button labeled reset?
When will I find the bottom of this decent?
If you tell me I'll try to keep the secret
I forget now if I've ever even seen it
I know I never see it coming, but there's no question I've felt it
Going dark and cold like a long forgotten briquette
Stagnant and never lit
Like a burning cigarette this hell is a slow burn with evil intent
I'm spent like a tax return, sanity gone before I even got to know it
Out of my mind cause I could no longer afford the rent
My twisted twist on Russian roulette is the full chamber aspect
So you can surely predict past it
My downfalls bound to hit a record high percent
The first click shoulda/woulda/coulda ended it all in an instant
With steel to flesh, I find myself desperate to create an outlet
To finally get the torment to ease up a bit
But it jams every time and I must admit
Dumb luck and the law of odds get the credit

©2024
SiouxF Dec 2023
Sometimes the all-consuming intensity gets to me
And I need space
To step back
And reflect
And clear my head
So I can return refreshed
And renewed
And in control of my life once again
A B Perales Apr 2022
The Harbor freeway was without the congestion and the gridlock that made this highway famous.
Empty freeways demand speed and in Los Angeles everyone's in a hurry with somewhere to go.

It was a rare sight in a city full of men and their machines
A rare sight that was quietly becoming normal.

The lack of cars made the otherwise thick layer of ***** brown smog become a minor smear on an otherwise beautiful blue Southern California day.
With the changing of the guard the nameless planes with their exaggerated white lines across our skies magically returned.

There's more of us noticing things today than any other time before.

To the far West Venice is dying and the beach has become a refugee camp full of tents and blue tarps all wasting in the wind.
Handball courts now occupied by old bikes, tents and an array of useless garbage someone calls their property.
And the California girls' no longer come here to tan.

The girls on Figueroa stand half naked on 64th street waving like debutants at the lonely men as they window shop for *** from the safety of their vehicles.
The girls here never tell you their real name and all the men are called John.

The Gang members in the Hoods on the West side and in the Varrios and the Projects on the East all use Graffiti as a way to convey their threats to one another.
The Taggers bright, bold pieces bring colors to the otherwise grey concrete freeways.

Downtown is nowhere you want to be without a million dollars or a side arm and a reason.
They gave Skid Row up to the people and the graffiti then watched in horror as it grew into what it has become today.

South Central continues to bleed red, brown, blue and black.
Curbside motive candles dot the city corners like mile markers along the highway.
There's been far too much death to ever mention peace here.

Hollywood is slowly dying and Melrose is at 50% capacity with robberies happening almost everyday on Rodeo.

The Cranes along the Harbor stand like giant monuments to a God no one prays to anymore.
And there's a lot less Cargo trucks on the road today then any other time before.

Yet we are told to "Stay home ,we'll pay you to do so".
While outside our city is dying and there is no where to spend the money we're given anyway.
never again
Dave Robertson Feb 2022
I seem to have missed the lesson,
or maybe it was a paid seminar,
where being a ******* to folk not like you
is seen as cool

A staggering self-belief, or indoctrination
into a way of thinking that excludes
the workers, powerhouses, batteries,
seems insane in a way
that only limited lineages
seem genetically capable of

But now I’m stooping, so I’ll stop

Let’s all stop
being in thrall to noisy *******,
rugger-buggers who had charmed and broken youths,
who knew no hunger except in minds
and no kindness except paid for

I would feel pity, but these bred monsters
are parasitic,
so to let them survive,
******* and spouting lies,
kills us all in the end.

Britannia rules these waves
John McCafferty Feb 2022
Learning the lessons that happened before
as they come round again in various forms.
Same faces and places setting up themes, we don't always see the patterns between.
Trends tend to reset and test us again, emotions take hold but not as our friend.
Sunk in a cycle of continuous loops, failing to think they may hold just one truth.

Decisions of a short-term visionary, skewed and responsive to his or her needs. This irreverent mist often follows a dip, perspective changes a clouded verdict.
Crystal clarity can skip our reality
as permissions transition beyond each dream,
when we look to our heroes who sit at the peak.
(@PoeticTetra - instagram/twitter)
Yrso May 2021
At 3 AM, passion strikes
All the things you wanted to do
All the things you've failed to do
Everything all at once

It's all gone now,
Haunted mamories
Yet it's very much alive
Beating, pounding; still hurting

We're going through it again
Just like we did yesterday
Let go of what you can't control
And give your all for what you can

Cry for what you've lost
Fight for what's still there
Surrender to the pain
But hold on to what you've gain

Giving up, it is a gift
Of freedom,
Of starting again
Releasing to make space

Giving up is starting again
To not give up of what's left:
Under those failures and pain,
Your dream and calling remains

Come now,
Lay it down
And start anew
'Tis the day of endings and beginnings
Get out of your prison. It's time to be freed and start again.
KHY Feb 2021
the waterfall pours from my eyes
pedals fall underneath the guise
stunting growth, lethargic dope
cogs and knots, perched atop  
Frozen locks, offset and lost
denial of fact, unravelling fiction
dine in solitude, reset and listen
Raven Blue Dec 2020
Forgotten memories;
Phoenix's debris;
Change of the time;
Future's entwined.
Ashlyn Yoshida Nov 2020
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