forgot myself

the moment i forgot myself in you was the moment you found me it sounds ridiculous but only in forgetting did the mask slip down letting the real raw emotion pour forth in the moment i forgot myself i was so bewildered by you that my heart stopped we found each other then something magical […]

sleep time

it rests in shadow hidden from sight as your errant gaze sweeps past it unknots itself to stand towering above as you tremble patting it’s quivering belly mouth opens impossibly wide with row upon row of jagged defilement inarticulate fear becomes all you know as you stare into the the spiralling eye of death

now

it was a transitive state of dissonance, a celestial paradox, a pair of ducks on a riding lawn mower, a snow blower, a snow globe with happy new year written inside it was watching the water go down the drain, drained of wherewithal, with out while so heavily content that tears flowed down onto the […]

operating

flashing led indicators, hypnotic green flashes, the heartbeat of communication, as fast as thought, impossible to quantify amber, red and green follow the traces, everything is just a doorway, either telling you open or closed, chips, capacitators, resistors, diodes and fuses a neural network made mechanical, a brain without thought of it’s own electrical impulses, […]

trapped

trapped in a basement the sun is shining somewhere above i can’t stop thinking of freedom of her i doubt i would even if i could

bumbling along today my head is in the clouds while my legs barely move through the syrupy serendipity of sloughing through life one instance at a time have you ever just spent twenty minutes staring at someone with nothing but adoration written upon your face longed to reach out and brush the stray hairs behind […]

in answer to your email

i received an email the other day regarding my writing it always makes me curious, makes me think of how it must have been in the old days when someone would pen a letter and mail the query to someone else days waiting for the letter to arrive wondering if it would be read or […]

birdkowski

i took a little walk this morning after the eighth time waking from broken sleep to clear my head or so i assumed the angry gnomes dislike peace tranquility is the antithesis of their existence so i walked to my favorite bench and greeted the rising sun with a snarl the damned birds singing sweet […]

2430

tenebrae’d extinguished by fingers that should have touched with love only to put out the flame smoky trails dance into the sky the last parting gift of the fool tenebrae’d

ode to summer

at the burgeoning cusp of summer sits the raven on a bed of rose petals feverishly guarding the bright days with beak and talon at the ready to swipe spring dies a cancerous death falling away into burning misery for one alone the raven cares not for sentimentality it seeks to fly to fuck to […]

ear

on nights like this i think of vincent’s ear the pain of life severed in pursuit of one’s true desire to carve one’s self to find meaning in the agony the need to have an outlet for the anguish to bleed it’s nights like this i sit and ponder vincent’s ear it didn’t know the […]

my study

i line my mind with tapestries woven of soft thread and razor wire a plethora of memories of which to pluck errant strings letting my life unravel before my very mind’s eyes hides and skins draped over childhood reminders firetrucks metal coat hangers toy cars mounds of dirt to race them to erase them bury […]

one end

they sat on the stoop, a new generation put to the test, mass consumption of crystal pepsi meth, they all seem to suspect the end of the game but they play it anyway with abandoned hope see the rules are fluid, there is no way to win, just get inebriated to the point where you […]

disparate

like swimming in an oil slick, coated in the viscosity of every errant thought, unable to find purchase on the smooth cut stone of wonder like diving into the fire itself, the sins of tomorrow ignite like fireflies dancing down every ganglia, frying like bacon spitting into the breeze again it’s like that, freezing in […]

morning queries

does the shadow of the anchor weigh as heavily on the mind as crude pig iron catching on the coral hidden beneath can the wisp of thought carry a burden as great as atlas holding up the heavens to slowly buckle the knees and break backs

only way

we did it the only way we knew how we were born apart but slowly we fell back together the celestial bodies give no real answers just questions born whole yet it took falling apart to come together did we follow the blinking lights in the sky i cannot say just that we did it […]

-decahedronically speaking-

decahedronic hydroponic – hooked on phonetically speak and spelling – the sails of sundered hope doth flutter in the sapient sunrise of the soul across missing missives misty and misdiagnosed poisonous – a rivulet of slime from snail mail sent letters of adoration – the hunched back of the letter carrier carrying hope from eight […]

breaking

lavender dappled torture chambers in fields of saplings stunted by the chemical spills the hum drum horizons overlook the bent shapes of agonized pupas forced into spiked cocoons iron maidens and rusted chains with crimson stained shackles litter the pavement along side amino acidic rain slicks with pollywogs evolving into meta displays of darwinian dismay […]

2383

she sends chemtrails racing through the embers in her eyes across time sonically harmonic in the ratio of permission to permitted staring into the device basking under ultraviolet skies lost in a lover’s embrace of fiery desire to sleep to behold her ravishing beauty while the body languishes

crumpled

balls of crumbled paper litter the floor around the trash can the sun dances on her skin, no, the wind plays through her hair, no, her eyes sparkle like fathomless jewels, no insipid wasted ideas gone wrong from brain to hand to pen the rain falls like tears from the unblinking eyes of eternity, yet […]

2378

i wrote a brilliant masterpiece the words spoke from the depths of my soul sang a song that made tears fall from my eyes across the screen of my phone it was perfect a crowning piece of poetry and then i accidentally deleted it you’ll have to take my word for it it would have […]

shades

it is said no two people see the same thing the same way that it is interpreted differently by each individual colored by each mind in subtle shades so close your eyes picture the sun fat in the sky feel my hand upon yours hear my voice whisper lovingly into your ear my breath upon […]

Review for my collection, Notches by Chris Miller

BOOK REVIEW: Notches by M. Ennenbach “Once in a great while, we stumble across a work of literature that transcends not only our expectations but genre and definability itself. NOTCHES by M. Ennenbach is one of those works, and it cannot be stressed enough that reading this collection will not only entertain you, but it will […]

crimson fantasy

it’s impossible to remain rational when impossibilities are all you can fathom is it rational to believe in the impossible when your mind insists on rationalizing back and forth like a teeter totter across the playground erected in the mind’s eye bloody imprints litter the ground around me yet all i see are crimson fantasies

dodos

ever since i read the eyre affair i have wanted a pet dodo last night i dreamt we had a little farm where we grew vegetables had a pet alpaca and two dodos that waddled around one had green feathers the other lavender they weren’t great pets but they were ours and you looked lovely […]

our blood

our blood runs like the tides our feverish need the moon above she is my ebb and i her flow together we make the lands around us tremble our hearts thunder like a blacksmith’s hammer raining sparks from the white hot iron of our love our blood runs like the tides our feverish need the […]

the devil

had a message from the devil waiting for me to read yes a message from the devil sent to me another message from the devil written for me how the devil tries to plant her wicked seed i thought this devil was far behind me yet there she sat waiting to speak to me i […]

choose

i change my cadence to fit my mood, my style to cover a lack of substance, my metaphors to fill the cracks sometimes the words drip like hallucinogenic honey tangential madness in small clusters or rapid fire brain sparks, dark marks, as i forget where it was going but the word play seems to ixnay […]

felt

he fell one moment the ground was there the next nothing falling through the space between seconds into the cracks in the infernal machinery that grinds all bodies into perpetual entropy one moment you are here the next gone he fell into a mobius loop of illusionary grace to become one with nothing to become […]

peace

anxious feeling in my guts gnawing at any sense of peace that may try and find purchase in the barren soil of soul wrenching torment all the king’s soldiers and all the king’s men couldn’t put the fool back into a semblance of normal again teetering at the brink of mental collapse like the stock […]

villainy

i root for the villains for the monsters for the creatures that crawl forth from the depths of hell itself they resonate to my broken mind more than the perfect hero with a million watt smile that gets the girl and the fame the darkness that fills my mind and soul can feel the pain […]

2354

in the tempered spring of consciousness i float along the winding river of whimsical wonderings so far from dry land this abomination in quasi-human form, trembling uncontrollably, from nerves or exposure or a combination of both ethereal epidural patches that blossom with strident colours across the bare patches of mindless inconsistency longing for a dock […]

sanguine lips

the fevered wound borders the sagging sky of howling infidelity infectious splinters of sharp pain induced nightmare trail markers greenish purple bruises swell beneath bloody leather skin a smile tempered with blooming insanity on sanguine lips

27 empty regret filled li(n)es

forever died in a tear soaked manifesto penned by shaking hands as the house burned to the ground around him with nary a sign of notice eternity another falsehood shouted by forked tongues to be banished to the edge of yesterday with the remains of misconstrued mumblings it is all fleeting the pain disappointment every […]

relinquish

the crunch of glass beneath ire the clutch of grace though tired the crutch of hope uninspired the crux of love since retired her eyes carry the weight of longing concealed by the dusty spectre of time, her teeth gone to fang in which to tear the soft flesh of any foolish would be pursuer […]

music box

my heart is a music box capable of playing the loveliest tune though i had thought the melody lost to time with gentle fingers you wound the spring with a faint clicking sound although rusty the music sings out again to fill the quiet night with song

constant

you don’t realize how important things are until they stop working my head is unable to handle the sudden lack of hearing from my left side everything is too loud, as if it goes in the right side and just echoes and rattles within my skull i am having issues dealing with the constant pain, […]

expression

two pillows in the small of his back a tight strip of leather with red stitching around his throat her smiling eyes and hungry mouth hovering in front of him one delicate hand gripped the collar pulling it tight as he leaned forward to meet her lips the world was an explosion of desperate needs […]

ten scenes: eight – the storm

the wind howls as the sky flashes with jagged streaks of angry lightning the trees are bent nearly to breaking, incapable of fighting the tumultuous storm leaves fly like projectiles of destruction, as fat cold drops pummel the ground the clouds fight amongst each other, a mass of ill intent coalescing above the earth shakes […]

if this is

if this is delusion let me dream the skull melts like a candle, dripping down onto the floor on long runs if this is dream let me sleep the rose wilts in the case, longing for the bush outside the picturesque window if this is love let me be yours his eyes glisten with barely […]

inherited dishes

sharing a meal on inherited dishes is like eating with all of the angry spirits of every fight around the dinner table her mother’s linen napkins taste of waxy lipstick and vodka and stale cigarettes every time i wipe my mouth it is like open mouth kissing a corpse

lovelifeanddeath

the saboteur hands grip the ivory pistol grip like a lover caressing the bare back of his heart’s desire the executioner stares with empty eyes at the well worn handle of his axe so lovingly sharpened red and black the blood pools under the strobing light of forever in succinct and succulent sprays time is […]

what is this

fake a smile ignore the pain this too shall pass, eat aspirin like candy aspiring to be somewhere on the border of more or less than what this is what is this heaven is closed for empty vessels like me, hell is concerned i’ll take over, purgatory is pack to the rafters with unbelievers and […]

directions

i have taken so many wrong turns in my life it was only fitting i ended up confused and standing at my destination unaware i was finally there at all two wrongs don’t make a right but three lefts do as a leftie with a penchant for doing the wrong thing at the best possible […]

left

every car and truck on the highway today has had a brake light out a series of random events that seem to be interconnected it feels as if the universal current is aligned with my own my ear is out of commission on the same side as all these lights as if the left half […]

signs

i was driving, mind elsewhere, auto-pilot behind the wheel i don’t get out of the city, not out out, but this morning was an hour out to the east i was watching the landscape, ponds and horses, cattle and verdant fields swaying under charcoal gray skies hypnotized daydreaming about her asking the universe for a […]

broken drum

half my head is as normal as it gets the other half is packed with steel wool covered in fire ants bullet ants army ants devouring all in their path sharp instances of pain in the now deafened half world i exist in where everything is off balance i feel wobbly unsure semi-nauseated in uncomfortable […]

remember the alamo

remember that time i packed up my shit and raced to texas with no thought as to the future just a burning need to be elsewhere before the somewhere i was burned me to a cinder keep it fresh in your head because i am shedding the things i don’t need and going even farther […]

title of ownership

every kiss is a lingering spirit upon my lips every tear still leaves it’s feel upon my cheeks every word ever spoken in love hovers along my tongue my arms feel the heat of every hug given in passionate embrace cast a seance cast away these foul memories with your love salt the earth so […]

the dance

she and i skirted around the edges of love like two well trained ballerinas on stage both knowing a single misstep and we would fall madly and irrevocably into the throes of passion i stumbled once or twice but her gaze locked on mine gave me the strength to dance on and as she was […]

focus

my heart flutters like a hummingbird that found a secret stash of meth in a trailer park in rural arkansas my eardrum was blown out this afternoon my shoulder aches my head throbs but my mind is clearly focused on you

outskirts

outer edges of the great cityscape is always kind of a surprise to this city boy all the amenities of the city but space i like noise, trains and traffic, dour faces and congestion, tall buildings staring down at me in disapproving ignorance it’s the space the bothers me like being trapped in my head […]

mother’s day

i feel nothing but respect for those of you that put your children first that raise them with love lessons turning little monsters into loving adults instilling respect reverence and reality into sponge-like minds you don’t get enough credit enough of a break enough of anything because you give freely even when it would be […]

time out

i turned my head as sleep still held my brain and blinked at the phone to see the time a momentary panic ensued as sleep addled brain misdeciphered digits and i leapt up only to see an hour before the alarm was supposed to sound mocking me from the charger my brain and i have […]

scrap

i found a scrap of paper by my infantile sketchings the word home written and underlined three times why and when i did it i don’t know but it is important or was or could be made me think of you

35 sleepless lines

a lack of sleep a lack of you a lack of sense to sense the need for sleep when all i want is you manic and alone vibrating at the speed of desire times the thin membrane around my brain etched with your name i cut out the best pieces of myself and sketched in […]

us = you and i = i am yours

let’s fall down the cliff together, let’s step into the open elevator shaft, let’s dive head first into a pool without water, we’ll wear floaties and dive dive dive i’ll teach you to swim, i will hold you up as an anchor holds me down, bobbing on the invisible waves of need, of shallow insecurities […]

Heck, eternal dangnation pt II

it i ran Heck the place for people not quite evil enough for Hell all chocolate would taste like kale but only every third or fourth bite there would be chocolate cake every evening and mandatory oh, what’s that you like kale good the kale tastes like jellied eels cooked in raspberry jam

Heck – eternal dangnation pt 1

if i ran Heck the place for people not quite evil enough for Hell everyone’s phones would constantly vibrate as if they had just gotte a text. but only occasionally would they get a text. the first person to respond to a real text would get one year removed from their sentence. but they have […]

simple and succinct

i would hate to see the number of words i have spilled seeking to write something lasting and pure when the most beautiful thing i have ever heard was her saying in a soft whisper i love you

flares

the flares are bright red stars fallen to earth, they send strange prickling sensations across my skin if i look too long, i feel uncomfortable staring it reminds me of when we pulled up to the house as a child and the red and orange flames licked the sky in a sexual way i was […]

ten easy steps

step one find a reason step two actualize that reason step three curl up in a ball and wonder why the reason is so distant from reality, it’s only a few letters off, same page in the dictionary step four cling to that reason step five not too tight, or the reason will suffocate in […]

painted

they painted the apartment buildings now when i look outside it is a different view it feels less like home than the home it hasn’t felt like for so long now i only like a handful of things anymore the rest is just extraneous filler until i can get my mind and heart united but […]

misty

the rain mists gently blanketing the city in a malaise of unfathomable sorrow maybe he is projecting himself out into the aether but it is comforting to think the city weeps with him rather than weeping alone

record

my heart plays like a dusty record worn grooves too deep for the needle to pick up silent stretches in the midst of melody cracks and pops now embedded into the memory of song oh had you heard the once vibrant music play echoing along the corridors of yesterday a symphonic structure so full of […]

sleep

i don’t sleep like a baby no i sleep like a haunted house the restless sleep of spirits wandering of creaking doors of chains rattling long through the night i wake exhausted excited aroused engorged yet so tearfully alone in a queen sized bed made for a fool tangled up in sheets like a hangman’s […]

(un)titled retired dream

i always dreamt of hosting saturday night live the thrill of yelling live from new york it’s saturday night at the opening i would do a funny monologue about what an honor it is to be hosting the show while the band smiles behind me and nods the rapid changes of clothes, my bald head […]

driver’s license

occasionally i look at my driver’s license just to remind myself i am really real i see that bald head and frown thinking maybe he was the dream and i am someone else far from here coincidentally he and i share a birthday but he never gets me a gift

a little man

i had been watching him for days, his beady eyes and think lips always stretched into an angry line on his weak chinned face to say i disliked him is akin to saying pompeii was warm in the year seventy nine, or that water is slightly wet to the touch he smiled and waved to […]

squirrelly

one day i won’t find myself watching squirrels run around doing squirrelly things today is not that day thank god for that when i was kid my grandma had a squirrel in the front yard with a deformed front paw we named him rocky excuse the lack of originality and possible copywrite infringement he would […]

lurid

the main issue with having dream become reality is the uncertainty of the world around you the margins are mobile, the colors seem to ignore the lines, definitions become defeatist delineation yet the ache remains, from temple to the top of the skull as the clouds threaten rain the pollen and pollution coat the tongue […]

burro-cracy

the security guard couldn’t find my name in the book of contractors he kept eyeballing me up and down my tools were particularly menacing as my nefarious scheme to loosen all the screws and bolts in the building in an effort to take the law into my hands piece by piece brick by brick until […]

exhibition

dressed in head to toe gray and red today not sure the image i am presenting dour storm or bloody fool but my boxers are purple so somewhere beneath it all there is a tinge of royal hidden from the world between that and the ink soaked into scars i look like jackson pollack’s least […]

but still

a pellet appellate the grains of truth slide through the cracks in the facade of justice until it is just us blindfolded with uneven scales scaling the edge of stock photo incidentals scaly skin flaking away into the abyss of ever more ever sore from gripping obsidian glass blood flecked forever for whatever ever sore […]

sputter

i’ve played devil’s advocate for so long but does the devil ever advocate me it’s one way i played the dutiful lover the loyal friend the rapscallion the jester it’s my way the wind howls a lonesome song down the valley of my mind, whispering through the rustling leaves, a choir for one but this […]

always scribbling

i tend to write my insipid odes any and every where in the car on the highway going too fast empty park benches waiting rooms offices churches today i was in the middle of a repair and stopped and wrote one the lady seemed confused asked what was wrong i smiled sadly it never stops […]

in a good way

it is like molten lava rainbow sherbet dripped down satin sandpaper and raked across the ocular nerve or transmission fluid smoothies with rancid peach pits floating on a sea of oil spills cascading down the back of a pelican koala bearannaise coating the grill of a fifty six cadillac cruising on broken glass before jumping […]

can you

can you feel my eyes burning across the seas can you feel my heart beating slowly spelling out your name it thunders threatening to shatter my ribs they burn with a fire that will burn away the past leaving only us

dallas

if i paid for two hours at a meter i most certainly will drift along the sidewalks watching people for the entirety of the time when i first moved to dallas i was underwhelmed with downtown, another snobby yankee in the deep south but now as i find my time drawing to a close on […]

she sees

she is like scrubbing bubbles on my brain stem, little flickers of ecstacy all along my spine erasing the poor self image cultivated over years of insecurities secured in a lockbox could i be who she sees, the man she believes in after years of tears and feeling like a blotch how did i fool […]

real

i believe in you it’s me that i have trouble realizing half masked phantom of my own dreamscape cloaked to hide in shadows you are real while i am fabricated from the scattered scraps of cloth blown against the cyclone fence

intro-redactions

would you settle for a set list, a list of intentions, directions, suggestions demonstrating the demonic nature of being raised in hell yet seeking heavenly comfort this purgatorical sentience leads to a sentence with no pretext, no grammarian essential steps all i have is good intentions, mind retentions, and misapprehensions that lead to a bubble […]

manic morning

didn’t wake up as much as dashed from bed this morning mind already racing fixated laser focus coffee made clothes laid out night before prepared fully dressed coffeed foot bouncing staring at clock thinking thinking thinking is this what the song meant just another manic monday must i walk like an ancient egyptian back stooped […]

parked

the car sits forlorn in the parking lot thinking about the miles it hasn’t gotten to run the full belly of fuel slowly evaporating as the fool walks what kind of world do we live in where people walk past their cars and hoof it to their destinations not this one but it might be […]

six things for when the silence becomes smothering

1) walk 2) reach out to a friend 3) listen to music 4) construct a new galaxy inside your mind. slowly populate it with new forms of life. you are the creator. make them do whatever you want. floods. volcanos. 1) avoid traffic while walking 4) scratch that. the power will go to your head […]

wax fruit

one day i hope to have enough books out that they get translated into different languages but then i wonder what if in a past life i pissed off the translator and he purposefully mistranslates certain passages or the words i use are untranslatable then the book become just another piece of wax fruit sitting […]

truthful reflection

staring into a broken mirror gives a more accurate reflection of what i look like than staring into a pristine one but none as good as the reflection in the river constantly moving the person staring back changes by the millisecond

lucid waking

fell asleep to thoughts of you that became dreams of you that became waking up to the sound of your voice in a way i am unable to differentiate dream from waking waking from falling blissfully asleep what a strange sensation never knowing not caring as bleed over becomes one set of wonder to another […]

ten scenes: seven – mars

stale air through the recirculator, the filter filled with red dust, makes for labored breathing even in low gravity and leaves a taste in your mouth like old pennies it was a one way trip, everyone knew that to be the case even if it wasn’t explicitly stated in the manifest no one really bother […]

you’d understand

to be honest she never asked to be the woman of my dreams but if you could have seen the smile on her face when i told her she was you’d understand exactly why it is true

rudimentary, my dear watson

sketching and failing with the same level of intensity a five year old feels much the same output as well my hands are like hammers but lack the precision of twenty pound sledges when it comes to art and that goddamned squirrel just watches me with a knowing grin on it’s smug little rodent face […]

ten scenes: six – submarine

the hull sweats a distinctly uncomfortable sensation as darkness permeates the world going deeper deeper into the darkness fathoms fall away as life turns strange bioluminescent lures bobbing blind beasts feeding by taste on invisible currents in frigid waters ancient beasts unseen by man swim in a ballet as creaking metal squeals death is always […]

(un)titled surrender III

i was hurt so i would recognize what it means to be healed. i was torn apart so you could teach me what it is to be whole. i was given these trials so i could appreciate all that you are. every ounce of blood. every single tear. they were shed so once i finally […]

cin

i fell into the spiralling arm ever inward ever sinking slowly into the surface the world began to coalesce into a sugary nothing as i found myself deeper eventually my feet found purchase in the soft and flaky surface ethereal cinnamon scented slicks pulled me farther into this new reality this mini-milky way that now […]

something to prove

just below the craggy rocks lie the bodies of all who failed to reach the summit at the peak tattered flags fly in the never ending wind me i just sit at the bottom and write about the fools with something to prove holding a flag to the fan and sipping coffee