i envy the oven.

thank god bukowski is dead. that hunter kissed a shotgun. thank god they didn’t have to meander through this online world and suffer the fools so smitten with themselves puking trash then parading it about in a mockery of art. we are all a bunch of goddamned hacks mimicking creativity in spastic bursts of static. […]

thursday dissociative blues

the trails blur brown on brown leaving nothing but hidden thorns in fields of dying dreamembers lines of blood and broken branches blend together in this seething setting of simmering violence dessicated shades where sorrows flourish moving farther away from harmonious wonders swirled into a muck of ugly losses as hope shatters in glittery clouds […]

somewhere north of ft worth

occasionally i worry about the long stretches of driving i cannot recall snapping back in a brief panic uncertain exactly where i am rubberbanding between states of dissociation and sudden clarity lost in the maelstrom of fluctuations no rudder no guide never quite sure if this is my great escape or another case of slippery […]

best laid plans

the purple blossoms have become an angry pink as the chaste trees absorb the fury in unrelenting waves washing over the world outside as it melts into shimmering puddles of mercurial dream clinging to sweat soaked skin raising red welts a flurry of itching as the white hot light over saturates a day of longing […]

fuckall

my life can be summed up in increments of two hour parking in those fragments between psyching myself up for a conversation to staring at the sparrows flying through the trees the long stretches spent choking in parking garages empty lots hiding from the world the sun responsibility always stuck in the car with me […]

tuesday dreamspasms

the creek trickles babbling merrily a sudden influx of fresh hopes splashing into this stagnancy of dream algae growing over the suface in tendrils rich with dismay red petals let loose from overladen blossoms floating blood clots a flare of crimson on a placid sea of gray ripples dance lazily as dragonflies dart over marble […]

distractionary

a smudge the greasy whorls of a fingerprint at the edge of the lens a cataract floating aimless in the ocular jelly of divinty a squiggle a shadow in the dark lesser than speaking algebraically in a world of common core irrationalities a train leaves chicago at three in the morning the conductor is doing […]

monday morning realization

all day long i listen to pins drop booming through the enforced silence as i am relegated to the shadows never quite important enough to truly exist just a casual stain marring the day to day barely acknowledged and just as easily forgotten i was real for a week for the first time in a […]

summer night

hollow bone wind chimes sound a mournful dirge clattering together in the solemn heat a coyote whines in the distance careful to keep off the hot pavement skulking in the tall brown grass red dust fills the merciless skies with a crimson rage as i sit tying loops in six feet of rope the weathervane […]

the unbearable weight of sunday morning

i shudder as the cosmos slide across the fractured surface of my roadrash soul as my thoughts coagulate at the touch of a million stars grating flakes of sublime miseries to gently float a cloud of grit obscuring the view where discontent runs slipshod over sullen wonder a new pollutant in shades of tallow remorse […]

faster and faster

i am a bipolar butterfly chronicling my fluctuations of shimmering madness maintaining a factual log in metaphoric nonsense of my yoyo soul oscillating ever faster from north to south it has been quite difficult going from grub always starving consuming as much as i can gorge myself upon yet never reaching the peace of my […]

have coathanger, will travel

the machines grind up majestic bald eagles and call it the price of freedom clinging to parchment they do not understand as they shifted a democracy into a failed theocracy putting personal agendas before the rights that aren’t worth the paper they were scribbbled upon. land of the free home of the slave where they […]

a pile of needles

a cluster of brown withered cacti a testament to divine neglect and in the pile of discarded needles i see only myself pathetic evolution needing little nourishment yet still deprived of that small need left dessicated in a plethora of empty promises under the vacant eyes of universal contempt retracted roots as the trickle dries […]

artful dejections

i seek to trick the very wind itself into carrying my words and hopes to blow across this desolation stretching between heartbeats murmuring to sparrows overladen with odes as the breeze moves sluggish under the weight of frantic kisses a cool front tickling the heat of passions in half whispered lines of collision leaving naught […]

okay to not be okay, okay?

i have a sneaking suspicion as the bricks fall to smash down upon the crowded sidewalk this is just another end of the world worst case scenario carrying an umbrella to deflect debris as everything crashes down around me asbestos clouds billow to obscure the one way affections of a fool in a dying city […]

the grift

i watched them two older men flirting with the woman watching the self check out lanes one would call her over calling her gorgeous as the other set unscanned items into his bags then he would call her and the other guy would repeat the theft it was a good scam that brought a smile […]

the nightclouds roll in

only sorrow opens her arms to sweep me unto her shallow embrace i sway incorporeal the shadow of willow branches dancing beneath the pregnant moon engorged on stolen light spinning gently topsy turvy in polar decline and my thoughts form a latticework of lace to smother wispy dream weevils scurrying frantic anxious the first snowflake […]

hard stop

my mind races a million miles a second and then hard stop. sensory overload induces a constriction panic seizes my chest the pin is pulled and an explosion of exposition tears through cancer ridden meat i taste batteries on my tongue and pinpricks flare acros my scalp and i cannot fucking breathe and hard stop. […]

solstice blues

the birds stutter as the day begins to buffer a static overlay of demonic heat in the throes of the sun’s fury as we hurtle at our closest point unrelenting the solstice burns hope to ash as summer asserts her dominance on the sphere the children celebrate these dog days while i am as miserable […]

a request

strap me tothe fucking tablejam a spikeinto ny tear ductplace elctrodeson my skullcrank that shitto one hundredsecure my armschain me to thebeige padded walland feed meall the dimestorepsychologies whileyou pump me fullof the finestpharmaceutical wondersgive me all thedrips and pillsand drops and patchesand suppositoriesshoot me full ofpeace and heavenas i vomiteach and everyone of my […]

darkened

night wraps itself around my chest a silken suffocation in bands of sinuous velvety nothingness my heartbeat quickens as my lungs strain to draw the humid air into starving lungs it’s the words always with the goddamned words drumming incessantly tapping out rhythms along with bthe cracks running across my placid insecurities as i lay […]

john david ennenbach

a hint of old spice the crackle of tobacco burning the shadow of a giant standing in my mind it has been nearly twenty years and not a day goes by without thinking of him of waiting knowing he would be home soon i still chase after his ghost using the knowledge he passed down […]

sending kisses eith ink stained hands

the kids are happily snoring coffee beckons as i read about mythological murderers to try and satiate the itching at the back of my brain stories brew while i allow the words time to steep unwilling to write simply content to love her and her wildflower smile as the day lazily stretches on i feel […]

stones

i like to gather the stones from the sides of railroad tracks to pack tightly into my chest in order to muffle the constant pounding stabilizing my every frantic breath these naturally formed baffles reduce vibrations as freight moves through the country so why can’t they silence my hammering pulse whenever the anxiety pulls me […]

black sacrament

excise me from your mind erase my taste from your lips delete every solemn whisper lingering along your pretty lobes exorcise me one less spirit haunting your every thought bathe yourself in holy water and wash my sin away you believed me to be a catalyst stumbled headlong into cataclysm for all the heaven hovering […]

lonely echoes

run the rusted blade along my chest let the crimson well until red drips to stain the carpet in rorscarch dementias proclaiming the story of a lost soul seeking succor in the emptiness i sidestep civility tiptoeing through shards of broken glass in circumspect attempts at noble indifference squeezing between metaphorical redundancies with the ease […]

a glimpse

there is a gentle sea where separating the sadness and the anxiety a shimmering layer where love laps at the tender agonies i float here basking in the warm suffusion aware of the fluctuations all around me but content to remain here as long as i can rare moments where peace exerts a sense of […]

distant planets and the death of childhood fancies

i have finally come to terms with the fact i will never stand upon the surface of a distant planet no glimpses of the frozen nitrogen glaciers of pluto i won’t stand there and watch as charon stays in the same place as the world spins i will never travel faster than light escape the […]

(un)tamed

i purr my love so softly a whisper building in intensity that trembles out in a throaty growl shaking leaves from the trees in a fifty mile radius. i prowl slunk low to the ground snarling a rumble nostrils flared eyes darting in every direction all at once. i remain (un)tamed by fate lashing out […]

too close to the wrong end of the airport

the car rattles as the airplanes make their descent the shadows pass over the parking lot the sky is a sickly yellow as the sun is merciless in its immaculate ferocity and i cannot figure out a single reason anyone would come to dallas in summer a concrete disaster scarring the earth filled with angry […]

dunes

a desert of dream stumbling over shifting dunes no north star to guide me only mirages beckoning out from the endless desolation stretching as far as my mind could project the emptiness within an uncertainty where sleep becomes a tall tale on par with happily ever after and mythical home not sure if i managed […]

Death of a Soul Duet delayed

sometimes Amazon is a real <redacted> and causes delays. seems the <redacted> <redacted> pieces of <redacted> have had some issues and Death of a Soul will not be hitting the 17th release date. should be out within a few days of them for sure. sorry for the inconvenience, but the books are well worth the […]

apathy is a fine lie of sodden woe

the poison sloshes an apathetic demise a sweet fragrance sapping the will to do more than waste away buried in these words unwritten the last week has been an engagement of disinterest the buzzing of insects sheer static playing over emotional dissonance as i chart my position in depression comparative to bipolar fluctuations discontented in […]

detachment issues

i stand bereft of skin in the sandstorm of scintillating disinterest threading the eye of the needle puncturing this desolation of indecent wonder i do not know from whence i came the past in splinters slashing the collapsing heart of the storm eradicating the calm in eerie viridesecnce as the ground shudders in agony all […]

puddle jumper

in the throes of another depressive state it can seem as if the darkness is just an ocean of agonizing enforced clarity but in reality the depression is a series of mud puddles just deep enough to submerge my head the latest storm passes and it is only a matter of time before i slip […]

a garden of serpents

there is an itch in my chest i can’t tell if the seeds so carefully planted are growing or if the rot is spreading roots throughout my derelict soul hazel blossoms sprout cascading deadlight serenities onto the toxic fecundity of hope where corpsedreams flourish in the darkness showering from weeping wounds furrows carved into the […]

surf’s up

i feel like an amateur surfer unsteady on this new board unable to read the curl of the wave yet trying too hard to not get swallowed by the pull of the chalkdust circle glaring malevolently from the clear azure my feet slip tears from the saline spray the sun refracting into prismatic daggers and […]

adjustments

the machine chugs a metronome of servos moving just faster than the eye can hope to follow small adjustments as the paper flows on into infinity i stand bored taking for granted the ease and innovation lost in daydreams of her and the kids gnawing at stories thinking in metaphors even i cannot quite suss […]

self portraits

i see the irony in spilling my guts yet shying away from any attention selling goods while finding the shilling to be repugnant all i ever wanted was enough not everything but a fair share to survive a life spent waiting to die the writing began as a documentary on the silliness of trying it […]

photo album

spent the night looking for pictures of my newest dead friend trying hard not to acknowledge how the fetid breath of death lingers on my neck realizing my number is due to be called any moment now seeing just how little a lifetime encompasses when i have accomplished next to nothing a stack of unread […]

two coins

every time i get a new message from someone i haven’t talked to in a very long time a cold pit opens because i have learned thanatos has taken another soul the gods damned ferry man has taken a friend across the river styx and sorrow burns unquenchable as i sip upon lethe yearning to […]

verge of collapse

i smile the same as an overpass on the verge of collapse creaking along on splintered supports trying to maintain a semblance of rigorous structure pitted iron in a storm of rusted denial a tattered sack of bonedust requiems unfurling strands where double helical dismay carried a bountiful malaise of tired regrets grit in the […]

immaculate contraception

i am the product of immaculate contraception a broken condom teenage hormones a divine disaster gone horribly awry an over emotional supernova in bipolar dissonance i look better gazed at from the rearview as you speed away from the latest in a long series of splendiferous catastrophes as the wind blows against your face on […]

two years and a hundred different lies

you shuffle the deck a piss poor gambler dealing new lies in an effort to paint yourself as the victim what was once a side effect of the global pandemic now a retroactive love triangle two years after you called and said it was time to wake up from the dream you still try to […]

three am ambulances

a brick ofdeep uneasebubbles inmy stomachthe hum ofangry hornetsa three inthe morningambulancepainted theliving roomin flashingred shadowsthe dieselvibrating themolecules ina desperatesymphony asparamedicsrolled outthree coveredcorpses fromacross the lot i am sickuncertain ofwhat i bearwitness totrapped inthis insomnialwhirlwind wherethe enginevibrates allelongated shadowsin flashingcrimson reposeis this partof a nightmarsan illusionfrom sleeplessnessmultiplied bynauseous achesthere is no soundjust the hummingof enginesdrowning […]

Death of a Soul Duet

Death of a Soul Duet. Death of a Soul: Sins and Death of a Soul: Virtues are coming soon. Pride – Scott Courturier Wrath – Stuart Stromin Envy – Chris Miller Lust – Mike Duke Greed – Ruthann Jagge Sloth – Christine Morgan Gluttony – M Ennenbach Humility – Shayne Keen Patience – Candace Nola […]

wasps and hangnails

some sorrowsdig deepa hang naildripping puswith everypained stepa stalactitein the backof your throatcarving a furrowin unshed tearspuncturingthe cardial sacreleasing ariver oflifeblood todrown everycrumb of hope some joyssting mercilesslya wasp onthe napeof your necktickling asit finds thesoftest spotto drive itsstinger deepa paralyticlosing musclecontrol asthe happinessfades back toanother memorytarnished inthe hallwaysof decrepencylingering onthrough thissoulshatterednothingness i oscillatebetwixt themunable […]

fiberglass cremation

my head is stuffed with fiberglass and my thoughts are scatteted on the warm breeze like cremation ashes today is a day for inner monologues where the ugliness is self contained rather than streamed like fresh piss upon an unwitting world

tiger trap

the fireants chewing through my guts are at war with the spiders in my brain as the caterpillar in my chest strains against the too tight cocoon keeping it trapped in a prison of ivory disdain strained tissues tear from internal pressures leaking poisons across the genetically modified fields where thorns pierce the translucence of […]

anxietal longings

a dreamy euphoria in dissociative waves crashing against trigeminal longings leaving a pulsating sphere of painblossom delusion highlighting the cracks in an infinite loop of temporary dismay an exhausting denial threading the needle between absent dejection in prismatic malaise to outright hostility painted in subtransitive shades of caged affection an affliction of numbed restraint a […]

sparrows and the ceiling

i don’t know what i expected maybe being home would relinquish the darkness of a week spent in a foreign place the sorrow would lessen and the tension itself would melt away instead i lay in my own bed staring at that familiar ceiling thinking the same things catching cat naps and whispering soft serenades […]

goodbye temple, hello hell

last morning a couple short naps to get me through as i gather my things triple checking my double check before loading up a run to mexia cross country up to little hillsboro then back home waiting for breakfast to be prepared sitting in this cell listening to traffic so many miles driven for little […]

hearne to marlin

it is impossible to tell when some of these little towns simply dried up there are people in dilapidated homes the central color is something between a piss stain and rust boarded up windows broken down cars the once scenic views turned little more than hokey nostalgia replaced with ghost towns i can tell that […]

36s to cameron (it’s about boxes i think)

there is nothing for miles latched a mental tether to the black car in front of me as i stare out at cows and goats and the occasional patch of scrubs i can tell by the shape of the pinions from a mile away if it is a crow or a hawk circling but i […]

day three in temple

planning out a circuitous route to travel today four towns spread throughout this bland corridor of central texas one last night spent haunting this hotel room then a slow drive back to a more familiar silence in a more intimate form of seclusion a phantasm seeking his own sepulchre where the sadness in nonexistence doesn’t […]

old crows and fools

the crow fought for every inch laboring low to the ground as the wind a blast furnace swirling around the overpass pummelled the poor beleaguered inky feathered splotch time slowed as i never so fully understood another creature so clearly near as i can tell this place is just one giant truck stop i have […]

(un)tethered, coming soon

(un)tethered is coming August 9th from the always wonderful Potter’s Grove Press. the last was mostly heartache, this one is the opposite. cover by my beautiful daughter, forward from one of my favorite people, River Dixon. hope you enjoy and as always, thank you for reading

36 west to gatesville

a rundown carnival three rusted rides and a few formerly brightly colored tents sits forlorn and dark in the parking lot of the tractor supply store on 36 as you enter sleepy little gatesville a museum dedicated to one man’s obsession with spurs sits across from a derelict brick building covered in posters that proclaim […]

dreary emptiness

somewhere between pacing and sitting staring at the blue accent wall of this mediocre hotel it began to rain a turgid drizzle the type i suspect falls on lonely travelers headed to a funeral powdered eggs sit by a vat of sausages a beggar’s banquet with a small machine that makes waffles in the shape […]