"Prison becomes home;
The cell: a catacomb that cages & the metronome
Tracking the years that eclipse you. History authors
Your death, throw you into that din of lost hours...

There is no name for this thing that you've become:
Convict, prisoner, inmate, lifer, yardbird, all fail.
If you can't be free, be a mystery. An amnesic."

House of Unending

An absolutely stunning collection of poems. In these poems, Betts describes time leading up to prison, time in prison, and time after prison. You're not just reading what it's like--through his words, you can feel the enormity of time without end. It's so hard for me to pick favorite poems, since every single one had something to offer. Some highlights are the redacted poems: In Alabama, In Houston, In California, and In Missouri. Other favorites for me include Whisky for Breakfast, When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving, If Absence was the Source of Silence, and House of Unending.