dreamt
i have given up on dreams because for a brief moment i had tasted reality and the hollow moments after waking are just shards of glass driven deep into the third eye of hope an instance of the cure exacerbating the disease
Category: poetry
derelict denial
it is in the purview of the hyperbolic to prance upon the bones of pretense with no preamble or precognition planning ahead is akin to playing the role of funeral director in the final act of one’s own one person play of feeble ambiguity so on he scribbles onto the few remaining unblemished pieces of […]
chilled
he clutched her close to his chest feeling the heat leave his body as the chill of the grave brought on hypothermia symptoms like necrosis that spread through the spiderweb maze of blackening veins
restless detachment
a sudden shift of forty degrees flurries of snowflakes unable to survive the still warm ground yet defiant in desire to fly it is a storm of confusion as the upper atmosphere refuses to consider the needs of ground level necessity this echoes through my cracked soul as my brain signals in direct opposition to […]
scatalogical
He was walking along the sidewalk, enjoying the light breeze and people watching. He always enjoyed downtown excursions. There was something like being ensconced in a cocoon of concrete and glass. And the ladies that hurried down the sidewalks chatting into phones while he happily enjoyed the toned calves above the impossibly high heels that […]
lights
she smiled when she talked about falling in love her eyes grew distant as she recalled that exact moment of chemical intoxication of infatuation she never talks about falling out of love but there are moments when the sadness is etched into her features by a masterstroke of devastation of isolation i just wish she […]
topiary
she had considered herself a mistress of topiary so it came as no surprise when i awoke to the sound of shears in the middle of the night as she ran the cold steel across my flesh in an effort to carve the shape she saw within me to the surface with every cut every […]
signs
he sees signs in everything searching the mercury induced sickness of the everyday cyclone of indistinct distinctions seeking answers to unasked questions unanswerable queries
irrevocably broken and adrift
the clock in the clock tower is ten minutes slow or maybe i jumped backwards against the flow of the arduous river that seeks to break me down i cannot recall the last fifteen minutes but i am aware i have lived them as nauseum no matter what that tower tries to tell me as […]
psyche
she waved her hands over the crystal ball on the table between us muttering under her breath while i stared at the mists as they swirled thickly within the globe then she stopped arched an eyebrow at me as her lip curled in disdain with no pomp she stood and pointed towards the door behind […]
poison is the cure
the comfortable shirt hidden amongst the skeletons in my closet is made of fire retardant asbestos every time i slide it over my head i can feel the carcinogens permeate the porous surface of another day spent thinking oh poor me there is something soothing about ingesting poison and calling it the cure maybe because […]
swarm
the car ahead of me drives through the drifting leaves on the quiet back road sending a cloud of shimmering detritus floating like a school of fish into the air they seem to move of their own accord darting on the exhaust fumes all around me as if i had fallen into a new world […]
bowie
sometimes i remember that we live in a world without david bowie sometimes i remember that we live in a world without lemmy then i realize at one time we had kerouac, bukowski, and thompson all creating at one time the world was countless typewriter ribbons and a thousand gallons of whiskey lighter, but oh […]
belief
he said he could read people see them for who they really were not who they projected to the world at large it didn’t seem possible until the day he saw her and was immediately stricken blind that is the day i became a believer
fade
i have kept my eyes closed this morning clinging tight to the remnants of dream my nose flush with her scent my tongue infused with her taste if i dare open my eyes even for a moment i know it will all fade away
Ed Gein
in the middle of Wisconsin lived a man in an old wooden shack he fancied himself quite the tailor and created his own shirt and slacks but there was one little problem his new outfits were quite a mess because Ed Gein had a strange fashion and his outfits were all made out of flesh […]
promises of ice
she had the sad beauty of a tear glistening like crystal in the early morning sunshine the melancholy malaise of the last bright blossom in a field of brown as winter blows kisses promises of ice
A Fool(ish) reminder
It’s been 10 months since my debut book, Notches: A Collection, came out. And included in it is probably my favorite thing I have ever written. Persephone, my reimagining in poetic form of the story of Kore and Hades. When I wrote it, everything changed for me. It gave me the courage to try writing […]
24 lines
the penance of rigorous self denial is the panic of riotous self dismissal i am an anthropomorphic house of cards built to serve as a storm wall it is increasingly difficult to gauge the tensile strength of hope against a mountain of evidence as all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are shattered […]
structural flaws
i used to think i had a weak spot for you but over time i realize it is a structural integrity issue because every time you come around i feel as if i could collapse i can feel the void in the basic building blocks of who i am filled with a deficiency that can […]
i write
i write to you in poetry because the words would stick in my throat if i tried to say them out loud i write to the world in poetry because the feelings are more than i can leave bare in the light i write it all in metaphors so it muddies the waters between lip […]
far from prying eyes
i have never seen a gigantic squid but that doesn’t stop me from dreaming about the hunter in the inky black i have never ran my fingers through the rings of saturn but i can feel the icy drift on my fingertips in the quiet so many illusions, delusions, intrusions, a mass confusion in a […]
forest lullaby gone awry
from the cracked rock flows the sweetest spring dancing down the crags to pool gently before running across the gravel of once mighty stone cutting deeper into the forest floor dappled with light falling through the waving canopy above a doe bows to drink a crown of gnats buzzing around her head as the underbrush […]
new piece
the cigarette sits smoking in the glazed ceramic ashtray on the dark wooden table a glass of amber whiskey sweats as the three ice cubes slowly melt in the hot summer air the sound of miles playing softly in the background punctuates the sounds of the busy street outside he sits in a yellow sweat […]
divine combustion
the moon looks like the crescents of blood pooling in my palms as anxiety clenches my hand in her loving embrace the angelic host sings hallelujah as the spots grow to encompass my vision like celluloid burning in frames of divine combustion
ode in decomposition
i would pretend to not hear her so she would have to say my name make incidental contact send shivers of pleasure down my spine with the way her lips and tongue formed the words electricity at the touch of her fingers so in the heavy silence of sorrow the fear of clinical necrophilia has […]
six more weeks
is it any wonder he hides in his cave wary of any sounds from the outside world he hears the crackle of fires raging the whistle of bombs dropping punctuated by heavy sighs so he buries his head afraid if he sees his shadow it will mean six more weeks of horror.
bleak
sometimes everything just seems so goddamned bleak it is a wonder the sun ever shined at all
cue credits
the endless sorry the princess is in another castle routine of running across battlefields in search of peace is the proverbial dog chasing its tail unsure what will happen when the damned thing is finally caught spending all the time chasing phantoms that it becomes the pursuit not the eventual end is there any benefit […]
eons away
it’s another day staring at gray skies in another parking garage in another dead end day of less than optimal mental health alone craving the comfort of a shared mindscape in this insanity of numbed reality press your lips to mine as the wobbly spin of the globe sends the desperation of a billion souls […]
settle
her eyes dart back and forth as the walls steadily close in on her the floor becomes lava the ceiling lowers and all she can do is smile some days are a struggle while others are for giving in to the inevitable giving up on the struggles of fighting another day she doesn’t care because […]
zombie
the broken husk drags itself across the dead grass drawn by need by necessity it’s every moment one of endless hunger numbed with the icy blade of death driven by mindless intinct a trail of rotten flesh infested with squirming fat maggots as air whistles from collapsed lungs the milky white gaze sees nothing the […]
opticals
curb the cravings for anything more than the minimalistic requirements the only thing that comes with wanting more than the daily allotment is the ever engaging opticals of chaos
(un)titled landscape
the aquamarine wheat shimmered across the fields as another gust of wind threatened the sky full of grit tinged purple with clouds of dust whipped up from beyond the broken tips of the mountain range stained red from rivers of blood flowing into the valley on the other side the tall boughs of the firs […]
there’s a title in there somewhere, but i got lost in metaphor
when i supped on the fruits of youth partook in revelry masked my symptoms with the cures i employed ambiguously enjoyed subjected and rejected the inability to see the trees for the forest of hieronymus bosch poisoned shrubbery as i willfully pulled the jesus bolt from the helicopter as i cut the tightrope mid act […]
a simple guide to resolutions
don’t this is gonna sound lame. but tomorrow is just another day it isn’t a magic portal to a wondrous new world tomorrow is just that so take a tip from me, buckaroos, trust me on this one be the best you no matter what day it is, do not accept anything less than fucking […]
wilted elegance
the snow crunches beneath the heavy footsteps loud in the silent night the sheet of ice on the river cracks as the temperature plummets there is a subversive transience in matter when the air seems to move slower as atoms vibrate out of sync with the desolate variance in the end all succumb to the […]
a moment
she stares at me with huge brown eyes that shimmer like a black hole drawing me into the powerful gravitational pull of eternity my every urge is to wrap my arms around her neck and hug her tightly to accept her gift of pure innocent affection with no ulterior motives we stare for the entire […]
drained of emptiness
saffron colored whimsies circle my half vacant skull traversing the moments between incandescent daydream and inclement sorrow it smells faintly of dandelion tea with a faint undertone of cyanide so i practice painting my face for my starring role in the screaming mine trying to ignore this impending doom perched like a raven with tentacles […]
end of the year tanka
the taint of the year no longer is it christmas not quite the new year a lost week of meandering wrapped in confusion of sorts
Uncle Spanky’s tips to avoid bad story telling #1
Before deciding to write stories, I was a voracious reader. Over thousands of books I learned from the successes and failings of the books I read. This has led to a sort of Bible in my head of do’s and don’ts. Tropes to avoid, for lack of better words. This is one I consider egregious. […]
monster
how much of the real me is too much me for the world at large to handle as the porcelain mask cracks to expose scarred skin pent up lies irreversible damage inflicted by weather by hope by dream by love by self monsters are real they hide behind our eyes whisper little acts of horror […]
did they?
did they tell you how i wept as i held the plastic heart that held what was left of you before we buried it by the sapling did they mention the ten year breakdown i went through in slow motion as the world stopped turning the day you died like swimming in quicksilver with an […]
common divinity
been forgotten the ill gotten gains of the rotten nectar of ambrosia spilled from the trembling lips of divinity to slither across the land like serpents of desire my mind aches yet it pains me to medicate to deviate to contemplate a world where the agony doesn’t linger like the last listless kiss of love […]
stagnant
the leaf in the river does not fight the current of the water it just let’s the movement take it where it will the man in the river fights to keep his head above for constant fear of drowning even as that is the likely outcome the fish in the river sees only movement or […]
some mornings
the rain falls gray on a backdrop of gray on city of gray in a morning of fog where the world is still sleeping in for lack of want to swim in the dingy gray these moments make my heart seize up in my chest as her red lips are the only color i can […]
turtle (s)hell
the turtle floats mindlessly one with the cosmos around it buffeted by the solar gusts it’s painted shell a work of true beauty glistening lights reflecting back into the void of space a reciprocating pulse and hum of phases the turtle is tired millennia spent with the burden of ungrateful life gently spinning around the […]
a treatise on why bipolar artists overdose
there is this thing that if you don’t have it you truly don’t understand what it is you may have experienced the edges of it, but it was a pit stop on the road, not a destination it’s called mania, it is pure speed and light and joy and wonder and your kind in perfect […]
sea swells and seashells and the salty mist of hell
if you were to pin your hopes to me you’d see me deflate fly around the room as the illusion is broken the inflatable fool slouched in the corner i am less than you think than i wish i am the great whirlwind of flaws abandoned since childhood to dwell with the other misfits in […]
prisoners
the walls around us are made of iron bars but no matter how hard i try to decipher the conjunction of peril it isn’t apparent if you are the prisoner or if it is me so i clang my metal cup across the bars unable to see the inner workings of the pin and tumbler […]
daydreams and landmines
she poured her heart onto the paper with careless abandon, an ambivalent amputation of the woes that circumnavigate her sphere of lonely sighs the rainy season reminds of long afternoons spent watching the storms as we lay naked making promises neither of us meant to get to things we both desired as the thunder sounds […]
end of the year blues
call it the end of the year blues that subtle breaking the christmas woes where you plaster on a smile as it feels like everything is f a l l i n g a p a r t alone in a crowded room afraid of smiling faces prone to tears at the drop of a […]
light
there is a moment a singular instance when the stars in the sky shine only for you when the blessings of the cosmos send quasars of indescribable beauty to reflect on yours in those soft seconds when your light outshines those of infinitesimal space all focuses on you
hindsight is 20/20, especially when the backside is a 10
seeing her again was like slipping on an old pair of glasses the world was blurry i felt out of my field of depth and in the end i was just nauseous she was like a trip to the amusement park at first it was wild every ride was something to be enjoyed remembered experienced […]
nothing for Xmas
twas the night before christmas and all through the home new york hardcore was blaring the cro mags screaming of sins to atone the kids are not here yet and i am all alone just tapping out shitty poetry by the glow of the phone santa sent a text message he’ll have to visit next […]
all that remained was hers
she wrote her fantasies across my bare flesh with one long fingernail dipped in the venom of forever i shuddered in spasms as the paralytic took over my entire body she purred in my ear as i convulsed whispering every dark dream she ever had into my willing mind to play out across the canvas […]
trust me
if you light three candles of blood red wax pull out the ouija board ask the spirits to name the biggest mistake you could make my name will be spelled out one letter at a time she hated that i got logical when it came to arguments yet she got algebraic exchanging numerics for symbols […]
reality is the seedy underbelly of dream
the forest of thorns drags across the tender flesh dripping poisons that sizzle upon the brown grass of tepid longing infecting those that stumble blindly through the hellshit of awakening to rail against the light of reality piercing the hangover of last night’s reverie celebrating the end of one bastard day to begin the next […]
A favor for the Fool
Hey everyone. As you know, my first collection Notches: A Collection, came out earlier this year. Now it is end of the year awards time and I really need to start getting my name out there. How can you help? Glad you asked, dear readers. this is horror awards If you could take a moment […]
swimming with ravens
the words are swimming just out of reach focus is fleeting lost in the daze of the holidays a coup a coop a loop in lieu of anything making any sense the ravens circle overhead, beady eyes trained on the slow moving body leaving a trail of crimson across the hard packed earth seven times […]
a year in review
this year began in destitution by the third month my car was repossessed my phone was shut off and i sat at the edge of eviction my first book came out yet the scrabble of survival diminished the joy instead of feeling like i had moved forward it felt like ten miles in reverse then […]
blank record
i was spinning on endlessly spinning without sense without purpose without hope then she slipped into the grooves worn from time to make my soul play a song so sweet i wept maybe it took the right moment to find the music of our souls or maybe it just took the right needle all i […]
hostile solstice
the reports listed it as just another yuletide suicide another heartbreak for the holidays a mere blip on the radar of talk of peaches and tyrants an ink smear on the corner of the day a click to bait the tapping fingers of this doomed society while the festive garland is replaced with funeral shrouds […]
bipolar opposites
i am a screaming mine a silent singer painted into the frame of the opposites that engulf my fragile carbon core with veins of diamond an arsonist in firefighter garb a surgeon with numb hands another blind fool staring at the sky wondering why the sun has yet to rise my spine is an ouroboros […]
invertebrake the system
he is no longer able to tell which side of the ice shelf he is on under while slowly drowning or above suffocating from cumulative fears so he wills himself to sink to fall farther from the rotten center in which he spends his days he wishes he were a squid boneless color shifting able […]
new normal
welcome to the new normal anxiety depression breathing in pollution where you are most likely part of the problem no one has a solution fill the scrips pop the pills forget the feels settle into the numbness of the constant barrage of soundbites retorts replies facts are subjective opinion is fact reality is surreal the […]
joyous saturnalia
tis the festival of light, ushering in the dark winter solstice hail unto thee lord of the aborigines wisest king saturn all to be equal let no one hold any wealth stand, undivided usher in the time of the longest of darkness on this shortest day this celebration of joyous saturnalia we give unto thee
anything else is a bonus
i have come to accept the idea i may never walk on mars i may never be the first astronaut cowboy president of the united states i most likely won’t star in a movie or write a bestseller or discover atlantis that’s okay i found my voice and a handful of people take pleasure in […]
maps to nowhere
he follows maps all day no idea where he is headed just trusting that the marked path is the correct one even if truly he is driving in circles over and over getting farther from where he wants to be yet closer to the destination he fears an ever diminishing spiral towards the end of […]
reverse
he removed his hubcaps installed sun dials on all four tires drives in reverse everywhere he goes in the feeble dream of turning back the hands of the clock it is a desperate hope that fills his empty center as he draws with white out on all of things he would rather not see seeking […]
the lazy artistic eye wanders
the smoke from the days last cigarette stings the eyes of the artist as he stares forlornly out the window of the passenger car as it bounces down the track he doesn’t see the world for what it is or isn’t just the way it once could have been from the myopic view of many […]
haunted corners
three hours on the road with nothing but his own thoughts to haunt the cathedral in his skull drifting through the dusty pews where he has spent so long in the full adoration of worship of ghosts the fountain long gone dry the stained glass covered by thick cobwebs that filter any light into a […]
in the end of ends
he sits wonders if he vanished today drifted off with all the other embers of forgotten time would anyone notice or would he just be another faceless shade lost forever he clung so tightly to dream that when it crumbled to become nothing but more sand at the bottom of the hourglass he was left […]
entitlement
he wears entitlement like a cape as he twirls through the day with nothing but expectations of agreement to his every whim a special brand of tolerance based on inherent intolerance to anything that went against his own set of standards unaware he is an absolute asshole
news from the Fool
so it is almost the holidaze and the end of 2019 and The Fool is fighting a sinus infection that is keeping him from writing but all hope is not lost, dear readers, I broke 18k words on my latest epic poem and am hanging right at the one third point in this tome. I […]
brief moments
the moon is still up in the daytime sky the satellite casts her gaze down upon the world in faded grace as i stare up in adoration at her pick marked face the funeral procession stretches on for miles as the police officer stands in the cold wind directing them along their sad path down […]
insanity’s sonnet (a collaboration)
we are born with a hunger, I feel it pressing me against the wall breathing on the nape of my neck. the clock ticks, it fills the room with urgency, like a hive of angry bees with judgmental stares weaving in between the silent moments, drawn forward by instinct, seeking the pollen hidden between the […]
morning rust (a collaboration)
her lips like silk against the smooth skin of my shoulder as her breath danced along sending chills down my spine. She always loved the tone of my laugh, it wasn’t just the sound, she’d say, but the tone. She described it as naked, raw and like a cinema of memories, miracles and glittering geodes. […]
something crawls
there’s a scratching from beneath the wraparound porch a thin keening howl that hangs just under the sound of the wind through the rickety old farm house just loud enough to send chills in the middle of the night there were stories tales whispered behind my back when i first moved to town dark mutterings […]
devils
the devil on my shoulder got into the adderall he is screaming into my ear the angel gave up sent a postcard from some white sandy beach in the fiji islands leaving me with little choice as to which direction to go six six six carefully carved into the soft flesh between my shoulder blades […]
rage
there is a limit to being reduced to nothing by those that believe they are above you that you are beneath notice unrecognized as the same species that when the last domino falls the final insult is given there are two options retreat or retaliate a pool of blood in the middle of the night […]
blurred
blurry eyes don’t focus like they once did as the thunder pounds behind vacant stares the world seems bathed in mirage how do you calm the storm that seems predetermined to rustle the vagrant stakes of nonendearing static into a pulpit of shame the light lacerates the skin of hopeless wonder until all that sizzles […]
oppenheimer
living in the aftermath of an oppenheimer curse pale horse people kicking up the dust of ashen cityscapes winding the hands on the clock until the springs are all sprung the gears as toothless as any hope for salvation the ticking of canary hearts against the ivory cage of ribbed excess nothing but the oily […]
saturhaze
some saturdays feel like freedom while others cast a pall like a funeral shroud over an otherwise fleeting sense of flight the machinations of grinding flesh to paste beneath the mechanical jaws of hubris plays a catchy song of bones splintering along the fluffy white candy clouds in the pastel blue banishment of weeping stars […]
seasonal gratings 1
her kisses felt like riding in a hearse with the windows down on a warm autumn afternoon where the leaves have fallen and the trees look strangely like the varicose hands of the dead man in the box in the back there is a bitterness in holding her like tea left in the sun to […]
pistols at dawn
the bystander watches the self aggrandizing bastard fellate himself for the hundredth time in the last three days and for the ninety ninth time wonders to himself why pistols at dawn are no longer the answer to the question of how to shut the vociferous moron up he mutters to himself to keep calm that […]
wink
he was a self propelled grenade of human instability and insular anxiety launched in a headlong collision with whatever brick wall of doubt was erected along the narrow arterial asphalt lane lined with dreamshards and razorwire of hope airbags disengaged seatbelts cut impact imminent a lackadaisical grin as the last cigarette sits between clenched teeth […]
dirty
she stands on a step ladder carefully pouring bleach into the machine but she has a smile for anyone that looks her way he stands against the wall loudly talking on his phone unaware that anyone else exists making sure they all see he does they sit huddled together on the chairs watching the bubbles […]
of yesterday
the air felt stale like in a tomb sealed for thousands of years yet open to the weak light of a dying sun about to go supernova and consume the entire solar system the ground had long since dried the fleeting remnants of flora as dessicated as the smile on an old whore’s face after […]
fetid glimpses of home
the splintering of frozen trees exploding as the sap freezes reminds him of spreading his ribs in a futile act of showing he has a heart to those who don’t believe the echo of the woodpecker pecking into the pulpy flesh of the sullen tree to nest within reminds him of drilling into his skull […]
iron pyrite sculptures
he built monuments to the monumental failures of thinking the world owed him anything the chip on his shoulder just a pebble from the avalanche of self doubt leaving clouds of dust with every aching footstep in the craters of the giants that came before him from the valley of kings there were no preordained […]
sickness
she still clutches my face grabbing with more ferocity than is necessary in a show of love more a sign of ownership left me shaking sweating through thirteen hours of fitful sleep yet still she clings on in a stranglehold just south of choking just past seeing spots she is fever she is pain she […]
a promise of summer
as winter spreads her crooked fingers against the land of sullen heat the streams along the highway give forth clouds of mist that blanket the land between the trees it looks haunting to the three or four people not so caught up in their own terminal velocity angrily driving to whatever destination of no consequence […]
deconstruction zone
i am deconstructing the remnants of who i once was so that perhaps the marble facade of willowy understanding might refract the bitter rays of winter sun in reverse osmosis injecting chlorophyll into the unnecessary bits to overrun the mitochondrial subdermal hemotoxin of hope suffusing the entire cellular breakdown with paisley daydreams like rubbing your […]
december 10
the sky pisses cold rain while the sun hides it face in shame high above the clouds even celestial bodies are aware enough to see that some days everything is shit
aisle of you
alone on this isle of view this aisle of you muttering i love you in ways to make it sound like random nonsense yet it is true life is funny that way
winter wonder(land)
she stabbed again and again with the blade made of ice so in the end there was no trace of the means to this end just another puddle of red diluted down to a sheet of black ice on the highway of lonesome travelers searching for home on a dead end lane she wanders with […]
contorted
this latest zeitgeist is one of looking away looking through never really seeing not caring for anything but keeping the status quo opinion is only accepted if it fits the mold the latest loudest lamenters find acceptable all else will be decried as hate heads down eyes averted comply or comform fit in or fall […]
a list of haves and have nots
i don’t have the luxury of being self righteous i don’t have the means to being regular righteous i have a tongue that carves as well as thoughts that pierce yet inflicting pain is the last thing i wish to do but it is on the list written in blood underlined five or six times
relatable tanka
crippling depression onslaught of anxiety trapped in my own mind instead i write endlessly in hopes it all goes away
Mike's Manic Word Depot 