Best All Bets Are Off Poems
It is not a conversation you overhear,
Like the questions rolling underfoot,
"Who goes there?".
You can see the grass has told
How tall to grow
To the chicory, dandelions and clover.
At the edge of the pitch
Where competition is stiff,
They grow bigger, taller and bolder;
Yet in each new match, every plant,
Agrees to a height and no taller.
Till in the next field over, where it's wild and fallowed,
It's to the death, all bets are off, and no foul.
2,21,2020
Circle the wagons,
We must protect our love,
Arrows and spears
Let them fly above
No one will take me away
No one will make my last day
I have too much to lose
Since loving you
I'll fight against all odds
And do what I must do
Shoot your rifles,
Unlease your arrow
When this day is over
No way can you harrow
My love concrete
My nerves of steel
I'll beat you all
And you'll feel
My fist of rage
My refusal to give way
And you can return with more soldiers
Another day
I'll tear your hearts out,
Spit on your grave
And I'm not claiming
To be so brave
But hurt my love,
And all bets are off
I'll throttle your neck
I'll seal your fate
And show you the
True face of hate.
Cliche Heaven
Be it as it may I'll try my hand at some clichés
and address the elephant in the room soon when pigs fly.
It’s a win- win situation, put your game face on, work the crowd
as we wrap our heads around comparing apples to orange.
We are all data driven, with an ace in the hole, stick a sock in it
while stepping up to the plate and peeling back the onion
and easily hit it out of the ballpark with a world of hurt.
Be my team player, run with this, my agent of change
but don’t throw me under the bus as you think outside the box.
We can touch base later seeing where the rubber meets the road
and put boots on the ground, a perfect storm, deal with it.
Here’s my two cents, if it works I'll go off the beaten path
driving route 66 on the road not taken when it’s up for grabs,
and taking a walk in the sun, learning the new math.
That said, don’t put me out to pasture, wait for it,
there’s no sign of my slowing down, its going viral.
These are the signs of the times, take the bull by its horns,
It’s a brave new tomorrow and all bets are off.
Don’t force my hand to be up close and personal
I’m a rebel without a cause and to die for.
Don’t get bent out of shape raising the bar in the winds of change
There’s something for everyone, just another babe in the woods.
Stay tuned, like, duh, as a matter of fact, at the end of the day,
it’s a last ditch effort as you live and learn the luck of the draw.
Pay it forward, that’s the ticket, give and take, get a wake up call,
same song and dance, say what you will, you’re as sharp as a tack.
It’s all smoke and mirrors, just splitting hairs to reinvent the wheel
and walk the red carpet for a quick buck to pay as you go
Heaven help us,
I believe there's an app for that.
Muted solitary moments run for days,
as the air of discontent begins to scoff
we vent in a wordless empty praise
pretending, telling the truth to back off;
in view of the mirror all bets are off.
August 15, 2017
Placed 3rd: March 2019 contest by Brian Strand
miss behaved like miss
thus proving all bets are off
butterfly effect
still with God's blessing
there will be catnip handy
for some lucky guy
Brian Johnston
August 23, 2015
miss behaved like miss
thus proving all bets are off
butterfly effect
Peter Piper pickin peppers
Pick your pockets
Potential profits
Purely pleasure
Plan on passin on, Puttin all
Personal belongings
In your purses or wallet
Because peter's plottin,
Poppin up practicly anywhere
Presidential pluckins possible
He's a professional
At peak performance
Nope no police department's
Pieced it all together
Or ever seen em processed
Or positive i'd em
From His POV his priority in the PM
Is please deposit
Palming anything you got
Then proceed 2 Pawn it
This piece of garbarge
Will pinky promise a priest
And peace out with paquito mas
Than he pondered
Sticky finger Peter Parker
Will put his paws on OPP
Then hit it raw like ODB
Pick the lock on your car
Pop it out of park
And sell it all to a pick a part
Put him in a pickle
And he'll sprint into a parkin lot
Without the paparazzi
Ever posting a picture up
He's greasy as a pizza pie
He be living the life of pie
Cuz his pirating, kind of seems
Like there is no end in sight
The punk will Punch you like Paquio
Probably start a petty fight
He'll Parasite a prostitute
Until her pimp begins 2 pry
Like a possesive partner
With a pimp hand of dynamite
Peter almost pissed his pants
Packed his back bags
And tried to find
Another peice of ass
Peters past
Will eventually catch up with him
And have him peekin back
Not even Robin Williams
Could be peter pan
Then he'll proceed from shame
Plead guilty peace of cake
I mean to P B & J
Thats standard policy
Now peters possibly
In a ungly situation
Than Polly Shore piping Polly Dean
Lights out not a peep
All bets are off
He can't pick another parlay
Tryin to cover up his peter
Because he's peeing on his prostate
Poor Peter
("Eye of God", 2018, original encaustic)
You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover
You can’t judge a book by its cover
Or then again maybe you can
Covers show us what the authors want us to see
And there is plenty to judge in that
But it may not be what the author wants us to think
Once open though
All bets are off
As the author’s own words
And not just image
Are exposed for us to taste, test and judge
And yet still in our judgment
What are we really seeing?
Speaking from experience
I can say there are many
Who have seen me, my art and poems
And think I’m cool
And then….
After a bit of conversation
Walk away
Thinking, Jeez, what a racist, sexist, fascist pig.
If you need to see the face
Of all you judge and fear
Just look in the mirror.
(10/10/23)
It's our social spectrum,
Polar opposites,
A moral conundrum,
Named Charlotte,
Our eyes locked across the sea,
Sealed behind iron eyelids,
An investor's security,
The upstarts outbid,
All bets are off,
The crack of our whips,
A duelist's standoff,
Agony on your lips,
Pushed into an animalistic frenzy,
My fists won the day with their negotiating,
A bargain for your safety,
At the cost of my sanity
"Our bond's too treacherous for society",
Wordlessly you agree,
"We'll find shelter at my home come quickly!"
You shudder at what you see,
"I'm sure you'll love it here, don't mind the bodies",
You tremble in your chains,
"I sought to free those women as well, tis a shame our love waned",
With clinking heels you attempt to flee,
"Stop that women don't make me hurt you!"
His breath upon your face,
"We'll be as one right now with the stars as our chapel and our priest the moon",
A night of torment and pain,
"I've consumed the fruits of Eve",
A genetic future ingrained,
"Now we're bound in sin my darling",
Your internal cacophony of screams escape as grim laughter,
"Yes master".
$1.2 million
the british empire couldn’t do it
the soviet union couldn’t do it &
now the great big policeman of the world
is ready to finally
retreat with their tail wagging between their legs
all the way home
with the tax payers bleeding
from inside the domestic walls
paying over a million dollars a year
for each soldier in Afghanistan.
imagine if that 1.2 million spent on one US soldier
could be used to propel one homeless individual
or one single mother
or one recovering addict in this country
out of their dire straits---
imagine how it could have changed their lives for the
better---
imagine how our dying public education system
could have profited
from just 1.2 million,
not to mention the lot of all those soldiers
who have been fighting a “war”
that they know can’t be won.
as mr. hope & change is no doubt lying &
his puppet, mr. panetta is speaking about the magic number
2013, as an election stepping stone for his commander in chief,
the fact remains that “enduring presence” is going to stretch well into
2014 & possibly longer,
given that once mr. hope & change is back in the saddle,
all bets are off (as if they were ever on).
1,735 american soldiers dead so far…
that’s 1,735 families who have sacrificed their kids
for the war machine &
1,735 american soldiers, means 2 billion dollars that could have been spent
on keeping americans at home alive,
rather than casting them out of their homes,
stealing away their jobs &
giving their children a shitty education.
A caravan for a Turkish
not a tommy gun
you took the jam out of my doughnut
periwinkle blue
a desert eagle is not a replica nor a diamond
sweet enough without the sugar
that my son is why we're here
I think it's you who should behave
bollocks
all bets are off
A rainbow comes but once
it's rained
And at the meeting point where it's prism rays of coloured light
penetrate the earth crust
If one is to believe in fairytales a
pot of gold awaits just waiting
to be discovered
So yee of faith true believers
grab a shovel grab a spade and
help and join me in my quest
for said treasure
We're all friend's here all for
one and one for all
And if we are to strike it lucky
and make a worthwhile find
i promise i'll look after you
and you will get a fair share
Safe in the knowledge quite
well knowing should this eventuality ever happen
All bets are off , sorry what promise,
show me a signature or a contract
or word's to that effect
And now that i have found it it's mine
all mine
And heaven help anybody who
tries to seperate me
From my precious
Go and find your own rainbow
It's bound to rain again sometime
soon and if not i suggest you go and
do a rain-dance
Because i am certainly not sharing
and who needs friends anyway
I'm rich , i'm rich and if i need a friend
i can buy as many as i want
never get into an argument with a child.
never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever
because they always win.
they have nothing to lose,
and you do.
you lose your dignity,
your composure,
your everything
a child never backs down,
they do not know how,
and once they are on the ledge,
they will jump
so never do it.
You will always
lose
Instead, make it clear that they are the
child and you are the adult, earn their
respect, and try to keep it until they
are twelve or thirteen,
then all bets are off.
Guess you haven't heard
you're yesterday's news...all bets are off
and it's not even yesterday yet.....
Thought you had it all figured out
had your finger on the trigger to shoot it out
runnin' your mouth like you got game
paradin' the same block...glockin your name
what a shame...what a lame excuse
your abuse of the life you choose
slingin' bling blingin'
in the big house they're singin',your song
which belongs to your active death dealin'
a sad escape from scrapes of a past
you had to know,this show would'nt last
last stand it was CUZ
memory of what was
heat on mean street...your fame still a buzz
as FAM call your name
your enemies still acclaim
fitting response to a game being played
players in action...no concept of traction
flow to the gold,their mark and caption...
Now just a photograph...a telling story
street version memory,a different folk loring....
(we're losing way too many young people
in the war on our streets at home....)
without
it
love cannot stand,
friendship holds no ground,
the world is full of liars,
everyone is an enemy,
violence will win out,
strength is an irrelevant concept &
all bets are off.