his heart a paper lantern left untethered to the mortal coil drifting upon the thermals ever higher towards yon frigid misery what light beckons from the frozen heart of sorrow’s bastard impossible heartflaked lattices glistening with pure impurities –a pause; rippled sighs, from painted mouths; along the sharp edge of ignoble dismay– she was draped […]
sylvia fills my heart while idles fill my ears your smile fills my mind as my eyes are filled with tears
second tries are invitations to repeat past mistakes those things that loiter just behind rational thought reminders dawdling in the shadow of actions so the only time i make another attempt is as the bartender pours three fingers of whiskey as the whiskey from the night before is clawing the inside of my brain to […]
she took my crease and smoothed it out but some creases are old so they eventually reshape i have been bent into the shape of a crane so many times i have to fight the urge to sweep low across the water as the sun rises to the east once i was a foil swan […]
people say — there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell as if it is a bad thing but to me the idea of a snowball wanting so badly to attempt a trip to hell is a greek tragedy that opens up in my mind sentient flakes united in the hope of the perilous journey into […]
i admit i have my own issues around my neck rusted chains with an anchor pulling me into the hell always open beneath my vans but look at yourself in the mirror try to convince yourself when i took your breath away with every kiss with every lick every time my hands rolled over your […]
today as you sleep, i stare at the ceiling pondering the sea salt crystals on your lovely hands as they dig through the crates of my every unspoken thought the hard tangle of roots writhing just under the flesh the forks of lightning dancing within your eyes as you seek the hidden words in every […]
as exhaustion sweeps through my weary mind the darkness pulls me deeper into its embrace you ripple through my mind with sparks of electricity teasing my quickening pulse as i long to fall asleep clutching you instead of this pillow that soaks in the dreamkisses meant for your lips alone
a malaise of insouciance lays over my being solemn as spinning prayer wheels in a brightly painted candlelit cave on the side of a snowy mountain unseen by man in centuries the loa, the spirits demons, angels, monsters all creep about the insolent indifference that shines in prismatic apathy across crystal bones and belabored sighs […]
she has three settings for her stare seducer reducer stranger i had been on the receiving end of the first too many times to count she could just look at me and all the blood in my body knew exactly where to congregate with that one glance i would begin to limber up if i […]
this picturesque obelisk emblazoned with a slow descent into rigorous decay the world is gorgeous chaos as the sun’s maternal glare falls balefully resting on the frozen surface of the lake as it opens up to swallow the light there is no clearly marked exit just a box six feet deep waiting impatiently the chaotic […]
in my haste to leave this morning i seem to have misplaced my smile luckily i can wear a mask just don’t look into my dead eyes
it appears my fragility was just the precursor to agony the drums began rumbling within the vacant halls in my skull a steady staccato that has risen to deafening tones i fell asleep at one to be woken at three to lay to lie telling myself this is fine this is fine i stood in […]
i feel fragile nearly shattered barely able to keep it together shaking myself into pieces the broken is close to the surface and i am not alright i ache but it is a soul weary ache an ache that drips along the folds of my fingerprints coalesces around the whorls of indecency a subtle vibration […]
beep hey it’s just me calling real quick to tell you i love you if you are finished hang up, or press two to erase and start over beep hello it’s me ummm it’s mike i miss you that’s all if you are beep hi mike calling i was thinking of you and wanted you […]
her beauty crucifies my longing eyes with gentle sighs that intensifies my needful cries for her pressed firmly next to me this lonely morning of wondrous wanting. just a taste to fill my mouth with wildflower nectar enough of her to stave off the day until i can tumble headfirst into her embrace like coming […]
i have a scar on my right thumb not a big one nor one i even recall getting maybe a quarter of an inch long two raised lines with a small channel from whatever it was that cut my flesh whenever it was it occurred not as flashy as the cigarette burns hidden under arm […]
halfway through another bottle of rye, glasses forgotten, long burning pulls, i can’t tell if i am terminally disinterested or improbably disinterred everywhere i look all i can see is the faces of the dead and dying, fireflies illuminate dead black eyes, while old white pricks scream in fancy ill fitting suits bloated flatulent corpses […]
when i begin the process of culling a new collection i am forced to read my words i don’t do that i don’t read and reread, there is no painstaking process of seeking perfection i vomit i publish i begin the next so they are new to me when i go through, i don’t recall […]
the last farrier in the combustion era shoeing the mares out of senseless sensibility striking the orange metal shaping the horseshoe with hammer and tongs he works mechanically rote muscle memory he shares more in common with the automobiles than the people that drive them after a long day at the forge he splashes cool […]
your eyes sing to me of spring while your smile promises summer my hands trace autumn upon your flesh while we huddle in winter’s embrace i give to you my solstice my brightest days my darkest nights you give to me your equinox as your love transitions the seasons in my mind
i woke this morning with a burning in my belly with words dripping like honey from my tongue to stain the world around me in the varied shades of your smile i am no poet no sage offering words of wisdom just a humble fool that paints the pallettes leaving the canvas unstained by untrained […]
in the shed is a paint can with a dent in the side drippings of gray that once was pale lilac dried in faded refrain rust speckles the the once burnished metal dead zones of oxidized daydreams colonizing around the peeling label with a child’s shaky meaningless scribbles the lid sits just low enough a […]
amid the syncopated wombmurmur in the heart of a dying star i hear your voice soft and clear, wormwood coats the undertongue as night falls over the sleeping disaster promised in your sigh. i walk steadfast into the whirl of blades unafraid or unfazed as the metal strikes bone, soft and clear i hear your […]
the words of the profit, prophetical projections of puritanical plutocracies, the sound of spare change rattling in the paper cup hearts gurgling in the throats of sick infants, coal soot streaked breasts on which the cleft lip suckles, dead dreamers drift among the reeds the golden apple of eris, the unblinking eye of horus, the […]
the sky is gray her eyes are brown and i cannot tell if it is mine or her pulse pounding in my temples but i love the groove have you ever stood stone still in the woods on a cool autumn morning with a handful of corn as a doe stares in bewildered fear a […]
the limbs of the cherry tree are overladen with fruit that falls to the dirt to fester in sinful sickly sweet decay the branches droop away from the nurturing sun as the insects feast on the forgotten scraps there are times the weight of the globe seems precariously perched on the precipice of disaster where […]
she has a way of cutting through my bullshit carving away the flowing flowery words until all that remains is my quivering truth naked on the floor before her she has a way of understanding sometimes i get overwhelmed the world keeps taking i keep giving she sees me becoming a husk so she gently […]
in the last moments of night when sleep calls with a lullaby pulling heavy eyelids down down down do you know i see your face that i utter your name with words of love as the pillow cradles my face that my last thought as i fall into the ink stained hallways of dream is […]
her lips tasted like confession and ache The air felt like confession and ache but it all made sense when I saw you. You were wearing your hurricane heart across your chest and I was missing the old version of me. There was a tiny tear in your russet plaid shirt, just enough for me […]
i wasn’t staring longingly into the abyss i was remembering the touch of your lips to my throat your breath on my skin as you bit hard to remind me that love wasn’t always a vase full of wilted roses or a half eaten box of chocolates you drew blood because it brought me back […]
i staple a fresh butterfly to my chest to feel the fluttering wings as nervous pattering overlaying the dessication in simple sublimation while the world evaporates in unhinged chaos deep down i know that if i ever let myself freely express the fullness of me that is magma in my chest i would lose whatever […]
how long did they expect poor hades to sit surrounded by the dead cheated by his brothers that ravaged the skies and seas with wanton lust and greed there is a solemn insanity in the absolutes absolute zero causes atoms to sit at their lowest energy value absolute silence causes a mind to shatter into […]
in the quiet hours after the world has fallen asleep the whispers fill my head as i desperately drift towards slumber that never fully embraces me back same with the universe itself it only gives limp half attempts at comforting embraces just enough to know it is forced unmeant nonreciprocal incidental brushings against rather than […]
there is always a part of the broken soul that is kept hidden a secret a pain that isn’t shared a shame scratched deep into the soul but she gets it there is something frightening but comfortable in knowing you don’t have to hide or pretend sometimes you aren’t falling apart i could never show […]
there is a daisy in a dented coffee can on the windowsill over the sink a spadeful of soil with the flaccid flower leaning against the window as if homesick for a home it never knew while i whisper soft secrets in life giving breath only for the dejected plant to wilt even worse perhaps […]
i sat at the table listening as he droned on and on and on his this was swollen some number was elevated his this was out his that was in goddamn man give up curl into a ball die die die for fuck sake lean into the inevitable he looked offended at my eruption my […]
she tattooed my mottled skin in wanton need with just the promise of lip and teeth i was a blank canvas before she made me into a work of art
a constabulary of carnations, prim balls of pandering pink puffs, swaying in the morbidity, inelegant indulgences like the swollen lips of lust, herself her cheshire grin ignites a charred patch of desire flaring across the cottonwood fluff covered fields, a quick burn leaving naught but ash behind the swell of her breasts, supple rapture in […]
the strippers are out of work in a pandemic fully clothed looking for jobs that will pay a couple hundred in cash an evening eventually transitioning to sex workers on the internet for the huddled masses yearning to be touched willingly giving out their crucial credit card info for a moment of connection. i don’t […]
I watched the crowd gather outside, as if word had gotten out. I was glad we had the triple locks on our doors although I questioned their placement only briefly before I was distracted by his gaze. I don’t think he’s ever fully realized the weight of his stare. It grabs me, like hands around […]
i took a hammer to all the hardest parts of myself until there was nothing but bonesand filling the skinsack the incidental invertebrate trying to perfect this imperfection knowing no matter how many swings there will always be the memory of rigid truth in the hand clutching the hammer i sit still against the alley […]
i woke with great inspiration to write a poem the coffee is ready the puppy has been petted the sun has begun to rise the sun has begun to rise all other thoughts vanished as the light snuffed for days peeked up over the city now i sit embraced by the warmth some poems are […]
she melted the night with eyes of flame pensively pondering prehensile propagate purgatorially penning pedantic prose from my hands shot metal strings that pierced the detached retina that blurred the lines etched across the mortal leer the night oozed tar across her ebon fingers as her smoldering eyes dripped pitch in sharp round tears echoed […]
the sky was blue, blue blue, clear blue, sky blue i lived up north a long time but i don’t think i ever saw blue ice, never quite understood, blue is cold, ice is cold, lips turn blue but i never saw blue ice sapphires are blue, sometimes blue, sometimes not, but those aren’t sapphires […]
sometimes i drive through sections of town where the houses are hidden down private drives with trees lining the street so it seems like in the middle of the city there is nothing for miles i guess it is sort of the truth as there is nothing there for me in the hidden homes with […]
i can tell your fingers knocking on the door smell your perfume from two miles away fight or flight ignites in my chest but i know i am flightless an ostrich with my head buried deep in the sand how long did it take to see the truth in you even with all the shit […]
the world feels half a step off there is a palpable surrealism dripping to form mirrorpuddles but i know instinctively not to gaze too deeply into the ambiguities they reflect affecting disaffected instances of rejections prior to the actual execution of escapology apologies i haven’t seen the sun in days now i question if i […]
i woke with a poem in my head that i do not feel like sharing with a name on my tongue i have been silently whispering and a craving of which i cannot define some days are like this i clamp down on my secrets because i fear someone may steal them or laugh at […]
The cold follows me into every room and I don’t like the air between your lips and mine (it started small, small enough we could ignore it, a bad day turned into a week, turned into a month, turned into she couldn’t look at me without the side of her mouth, that mouth that had […]
there is an indignity in realizing you are now too old to die young. but there is a measure of comfort in knowing there is still time to leave as much wreckage as possible. what do you say? hold hands while we burn as much of this place to the ground as we can manage […]
when i was a kid my favorite season was winter the heavy snows in illinois would smother the sound laying heavy over everything but my joy was waking before the sun rose in her pallid state to watch the light reflect off the millions of diamond coated tree branches the air was too cold for […]
your words pluck the ukulele string that runs through my heart with a perfectly clear note that thrums inside my chest
when i woke this morning, it was easy to misinterpret the heron’s call through the static I stood in the door shadow of the narrow cellar steps immersed in the hallucinogenics of summer and the hard slap of fall the world felt musty, the sky seemed dusty, everything felt slightly askew, as I took wobbling […]
she rattled the cage door with a smile that quickly faded as i stared into her fathomless gaze she poked and prodded, a long sharp stick with her perfume soaked into the blood wet wood i see your heart, you know, sending kaleidoscopic images onto the ceiling when you sleep i watch the colors bleed […]
i was insane before i found my voice in that voice a myriad of shapes and sounds i fall into them licking every hard consonant trailing fingers over the ivory-keyed vowels i was mad trying to scream in cursive until i learned to uncapitalize inconsequentialities i don’t write words i shape those sounds until the […]
she plucked a pinion from my broken wing with which to pen her vacantheart goodbyes she scrawled it upon the sheets in neat rows to fill the impression our bodies had created i bade her do not look back she obliged leaving an ink coated trail out of my world time ceased meaning anything for […]
there is poetry spread thick across my tongue in my agate gaze the entire world has a hidden cadence i do not recall the last time i had a normal thought lost in seeking the connection between syllables there is poetry thickly spread across your skin my pale pink tongue longs to taste every word […]
unaware if i ever slept or if this is just one continuous day of sleep deprived inhibition the sky is dark the ambient light a nightlight pervading the ever growing darkness within manifested externally in a display of black on black on black on lavender fever dreams across the asphalt i see my distorted reflection […]
i am reading camus and my sense of self seems disproportionate to the sense of myself others seem to feel entitled to i was sitting in the shade thinking, by the old oak with the squirrels that like to run across the back of the bench chittering profanities i saw my ex today i didn’t […]
her kiss sunrise across my parted lips a culmination after a lifetime in the dark her kiss sunset trailing along my cheek a sad farewell before stepping back into night oh, for a thousand noontime kisses to stave off the cold the chill wind of eternal evening across the desolate places hidden deep in a […]
i am delicate barbed wire twisted around lungs a drop of crimson on virgin white my heart is sculpted from plastic explosives my lips ignite the fuse but the countdown begins in earnest when i feel your breath on my thigh i am broken bent out of shape from all the sexual positions practiced and […]
I sit every morning on the other side of his coffee cup just waiting to hear him remind me of things, tease me and listen to him laugh, as I hold my legs tightly together so he can’t notice what he does to me. But he always notices, and I see the color of his […]
there is a hole in my heart a steady leak filling my chest with blackened gelatinous bits of the parts of me i long to share but likely never will i am tired of screaming myself hoarse hoping an eagle mistakes my shaved head for a rock to drop a tortoise end both of our […]
the neighbors with the new puppy have apparently gone back to some semblance of normal the little girl left early with her school supplies her parents slipped into their cars while i sipped coffee and waited for the sun they have locked the puppy up i can tell by the high pitched squeaky yowls every […]
i am not sure who you are but i miss you terribly today but it feels like you don’t even know who i am that just makes it more bittersweet on my lips
i tried to tell you i was the devil it isn’t my fault my tongue was inside of you at the time as you whispered my name pulling me in closer and closer the invocation was complete
trying to weave my way through the minefield in my mind is playing sudoku with the finesse of seppuku the numerics out of sync with the blade in my stomach questioning the honor in quenching the steel in random digits clenching the slick hilt as the crimson stains the squares there is a fragility thick […]
i am a casual insomniac with artistic aspirations i dabble in the lost arts of self-referential self-abuse with the light linework of matisse across incidental pain graphite sketches gradients crosshatched along the obtuse radius resisting radiance radically radial radio broadcasts sent from the edge of the last heartschism sleepwalking through the performance art inherent in […]
the quiet oppressively coats everything except the dishwater an ocean echoing from the kitchen with soothing waves i fall into the rhythm reminded of the womb when the vacant heartbeat was no promise of sundered wounds but carried hope before the understanding that just because it is the first sound i heard doesn’t necessarily make […]
i woke with a longing for you to pour your golden light down my throat as if molten lead to coat my chest in your ethereal magic joy i woke with an urge to use an exactoblade to rearrange my fingerprints so i could adopt a new identity better suited to life i woke with […]
when i tell you i will suck your soul out as we stare into each other’s eyes tasting your breath hovering a millimeter from touching that moment where you give in and it’s mine i mean it i’ll be gentle ish when it comes to you patience is the bonfire filling the sky with magenta […]
her collar bone, misshapen like a pomegranate, yet still just as sweet if slightly worse for wear it is the imperfection that highlights the perfection innate to her
autumn has enfolded the world, there is a pleasant cool to the day driving with the window down arm out feeling as the air kisses hades mark as the music plays too loudly but i don’t have my voice today, i cannot talk as the words just sit in the back of my throat, lodged […]
sonorous spirit! scintillating spectre! sweet siren, singing serenity scented serenades. sending sultry shivers, seductively shaking soulchills. she, supple serendipity, shearing sanctimonious scrutiny, softly sharing sanctuary.
lint is a timebomb a punk rock poet staring his demons directly in the eye a modern day kerouac with a two foot mohawk joe strummer is dead joey ramone is dead david bowie is dead lemmy is dead sometimes just knowing the world didn’t even stop for one fucking minute stabs me right in […]
when i die i want my t-shirts to be divvied up between my loved ones that way they can wear them knowing i am hugging them i love them and i am always just a thought away
the moon hung in petulant shades of pink with orange splotches like bruises across the pitted face glaring down at me in a mix of disappointed disapproval for forsaking the comfort of bed to traverse the empty roads i am tired but the vacuous embrace found in a queen sized void where the fool curls […]
the best parts of me the hidden bits untarnished by the greasy hands of familial distress are kept in a burlap sack buried beneath the cherry blossom tree on the onyx hill in the center of the necropolis filled with all the interred lovelorn corpses slamming angry fists against the cheap wooden boxes in which […]
every line is falling in love by the milligram each word a dose infused with unshed tears in a chemical bond with hope a patented blend of vernacular deification bled into the centrifuge to separate the gossamer refrains bound to the crystalized soulglitter shed across the pixelated stardust in her eyes a hand stretches out […]
i watched the snow fall, fat flakes that melted as soon as they hit the windshield, i didn’t bother with the wipers, just watched the water run down Hold my hand dear snowbird Let’s make little cocoons and bury our treasured scars Let’s skip this season and the hardest winds she was a patch of […]
when i was a kid i would bob on the swimming pool waves with my face down in the water watching the shadows dance across the bottom unaware of the self fulfilling prophecy drowning in the sea baptized by poseidon destined to return to the sea foam from which i sprang fully broken to stagger […]
there is a chill in my bones, my love, a frigidity that makes my limbs quiver, an uncontrollable shaking, and i am tired, so tired of waking in this bed alone with the the taste of you still strong on my tongue, honeysuckle, orange, spices so tired, i am tired the chill has settled deep […]
as sleep drips from my brain honey to trickle down my nervousness in waves of sweet surrender the remain of dreamgrit in the morning dark that i cannot scrub from the corner of my unfocused eyes i await the sun to burn the sins of yesterday from my tattered soulflag as it hangs at half […]
her blood shimmered across my tongue the shadow of a flame impossibly decedent with the weight of sin i am a glutton for her i do not apologize for my need
how many hundreds of sloppy odes have i written about you? yet i lose my voice thinking about saying them making them real add this one to the list
there are days i’ve lived that i do not think were ever meant for me whole chunks of my existence that seemed predestined for another yet somehow i slipped in by mistake a tragic case of the right body with the wrong soul so if you look at me and see someone else it’s me […]
some mornings i feel like a diving spider with a web filled with air slowly knitting together a garish pink barbie funhouse just beneath the surface of the pond some mornings i feel like a mockingbird barking from a tree as the neighbor folds a pillow over their head in an effort to maintain a […]
when i paused and fell to one knee she let out a sharp inhalation, a host of emotions that sped through as i realized she might think this was a proposal it was, but not for a lifetime of fairy tale sunsets, there would be no magician, no dragon, no knight, she is a beautiful […]
i come to you in need with agonized chapped lips from the lingering frost on the lethargic kiss of winter cracked and bleeding i absorb your poetic heart with every painful kiss down the rigidity of the spine of our story that same kiss of winter meant for the heart of summer but always separated […]
in the obviously oblivious obsolescence of oblivion he busks for change a one man band humming elevator versions of unwritten pop songs decomposed in the brains splattered against the mildewed tiles of the last bathroom hidden in the darkness beneath the landing for the orange line train thirteen times the candleflame flickers in the rancid […]
there are leeches fat with the blood that carelessly falls from my eyes to stain my cheeks crimson thunder sounds there are maggots deep in the dreamflesh writhing with sallow misery in which to feast nature howls a housefly walks across the ocular orb’s unseeing surface with spindly legs in the jelly plumes of smoke […]
if the human body is sixty percent water why do i always feel like i am drowning? not just returning to where i came from.
A wind blew across the foam tipped waves, down through the tangles of trees, across the sun baked plains. Hints of salt, peonies and grass tantalizingly danced in its invisible grace. Down and around the buildings that stretched up into the sky, swirling the trash in the alleyways, and entwining itself among the tubes of […]
i see myself in the wind warped panes of glass that line the buildings. an apple precariously perched on an overcoat filled with baby rabbits a spiderweb whipping in the congestion of angry cars with headless drivers my sighs float like an open sewer through the hazy malaise of summer end she smells of gunpowder […]
all i have to give is ashen fingerprints along the smooth curve of your quiet
she hid my sorrow in her uterine embrace i fear my love is cancerous multiplying within her autoimmune serendipity
i live in that moment of bated breath between witching hour and sunrise where the dark things scurry across the leaf laden ground blind creatures that defy reality hunters drawn by the scent of soft emotions hidden in the brush if she were to ask me what i want what i truly want i would […]
weary whimsy with woven wings As I sat still watching the pre dawn ocean I knew I wasn’t his fault. I was no ones fault. Maybe I was thinking how I wished I were the lilacs to the intermittent raindrops in his pale blue calm. heretical heartspells heave hollow hell I’m truly a small town […]
they say a watched pot never boils. i say they lack patience. there is a beauty in seeing the bubbles form. some things are worth the wait.
Mike's Manic Word Depot 