there was a spiral staircase in the middle of the castle made out of ivory bones carved by careful hands to look like faery wings that stretch on and on into the aether all the way to a locked door without a key that hides away the secrets of another broken heart she played with […]
can’t recall if it was today or yesterday as the days run together in a string of barely slept awakenings in which the thunder booms as lightning races from one end of my brain to the other with the manic frequency of lazy cheetahs on methamphetamine laced laments have you ever seen the sunrise as […]
the cockroach sitting on the couch sipping coffee and smoking a bent cigar glared at me this morning as i staggered into the living room with the stale scent of wine and a mouth that tasted like a dirty ashtray the milk is spoiled i nodded and scratched myself with the vigor of a man […]
robotic on an early sunday morning coming down from the highs of a wasted weekend laundromatic sugar buzz from la tapatia sitting dazed and glazed like the sweets gestating been a rainy summer in the miserable heat but the overcast clouds whisper of humid aches spinning like the clothes in the machine a machine of […]
she could have picked any gin joint in the city to walk into with her dangerously high heels bright red lips seaside highway curves yet when the door opened to this one the jazz band skipped a note and for a long glorious moment silence filled the smokey bar she looked like a model in […]
the steady trickle of blood from the pool in my ear to the pillow that hurts to lay upon the sun shining through the blinds in flickers of blinding brilliance as the sound of the ocean fills the throbbing deep inside i miss you this pain is temporary but the longing never fails
i am one sexually transmitted disease induced delirium away from the penniless cliche the poet found dead in an opium death the writer other writers think is brilliant but the normal person cannot be bothered to read a line of as i beg and plead desperately published into the halls of obscurity to fade into […]
i am dizzy from the constant rotation of this ever spinning planet, a suicide at the convenience store, clean up in aisle four, the lottery machine sprayed down in crimson bumper to bumper, bumper cars bounce down the high road while i skirt the outskirts of the low road yet you’ll still arrive before me […]
when i was a kid we would go to young’s bakery and get smiley face cookies with thick yellow glaze i always got a gingerbread man with raisin eyes and buttons down his front run run as fast as you can you can’t catch me i’m the gingerbread man the bakery is long gone but […]
tenfold sky prismatic in nature cerulean kaleidoscope illusionary existence fat clouds filling buoyant stares
the side effects of getting exactly what you want can be worse than the symptoms suffered before when your dreams are intangible it doesn’t feel so lonesome when they do not come true but knowing they are within reach causes the desperation to become palpable impossible to handle the crushing weightof waiting
https://wp.me/p8EAMa-F8 The wonderful Tara Caribou has curated a new anthology with some absolutely brilliant minds. And me. Anytime you can read River and Tara is a great time. And I am quite proud of my story as well, a modern retelling of one of my favorite of Grimm’s fairy tales. So buy Tara’s book of […]
she said she would be sick if i wrote another sloppy ode about her or another erotic scene in which she knows she is the subject of throbbing painful lust i understood so this isn’t another ode to her being beautiful or the subject of my every sexual desire at all even if it is […]
how many bucketfuls of words can be pulled from the well of sorrow can you keep mining through the layers to find fresh ore in an effort to keep the water flowing to keep the art going in an oversaturated world of wordsmiths how many bucketfuls of loss exist in the fathomless depths i don’t […]
the coffee is black with notes of cinnamon bitter to tongue pleasant to palate her lips were sweet like fresh berries but her tongue tasted acrid like dreams gone to dust the coffee is black with notes of cinnamon but today i long for cream or possibly a bit of sugar her eyes like diamonds […]
On July 17th, Dig 2 Graves vol 2 comes out from Death’s Head Press and features my story “Movie Night”, as well as 21 other tales of revenge by a slew of great authors. The preorder is live now for just 99 cents! What a deal! I’m proud of this story. When I found out […]
her image dances across my brain like the shadow of branches swaying in the hot texas breeze the sunshine is too bright so i close my eyes yet somehow her beauty makes the light outside a candle compared to a bonfire
there is something romantic in my mind about the railroad from tales of hopping into empty cars and seeing the country to secret hobo languages the shaking cars lulling you to sleep as you lay on a bed of hay wondering where it will stop next
as the sunset over his shoulder the last flickering rays gave way to implacable dark the stars awoke from slumber the moon peaked it’s head out from behind the clouds and the world fell to shaking around him buildings swayed as tectonic dismay pummeled the ground below as night blanketed the sky above all he […]
Listen to Starlight.m4a by MEnnenbach on #SoundCloud
he sits in the park staring off into the woods around him but seeing none of it his mind is lost far from his physical form away from the bikers the dogs the other people staring in a rough approximation of where his eyes drift off to he sees into the past the future ignoring […]
i watched carefully as she stroked the petals of the flower in the wan light of the moon my breath caught in my throat as my eyes locked onto the slight motion of her fingers gently at play her eyes were closed her teeth biting down onto her bottom lip as she spread it open […]
i mistook the call for self motivation for one of self immolation as i stood in a pyre of my own devising the subtle differences between the two modes of living became less than obvious i watched motivation dance like fireflies around my smoldering form six of one, half dozen of another i suppose the […]
i heard the tick tock circling three sixty the vessel rocked on the stormy seas of realization the tick tock grows closer closer closer one day we all wake up tick tock tick tock we used to soar crow like a rooster swordfight the evil adults of contemporary disillusion then we awaken to the steady […]
dreams are easy to give up intangible things that hover at the edge of consciousness barely cognizant realities that sweep across the sleeping mind until you see the first come to fruition then they become drug soaked dervishes that consume your waking mind if one can happen why not more more more
her brown eyes catch the light as she stretches luxuriously on the couch a low purr rumbles in the back of her throat her taut body on display in all of it’s sublime sexuality i watch the shadow of it my tongue across my lips in an unconscious display of hunger a growl emanating in […]
she loves him so fiercely in the night under cover of darkness because she refuses to rise in the morning without him against her evenings of passion as the sun sets they move as one locked together then as the sun rises she fights as ferociously as she makes love against waking she is not […]
her eyes honed to a monomolecular edge capable of slicing right through to my indecisive core intent on nurturing a sense of self
sudden onset deafness the world gone silent no sound breaks the void of tangible emptiness that surrounds him as he sits staring out through the closed blinds at a land of make disbelief
it was a dream i dreamt and in the tangle of bedsheets slowly forgot as the world inserted it’s own brand of harsh reality into the not yet ready for the real state of mind it was before coffee before shower before cooking it was laying in a pile of muscles and fat and bones […]
his eyes grow heavy yet sleep remains elusive when his eyes close as darkness falls over him he feels her hands gently roam across his trembling body shivers of need course along his over active nerve endings his mind needs sleep yet every cell in his body aches for her he lets the dark envelop […]
over our time together we made plenty of things laughter tears meals memories tinged with gray but as the sand flows through the hourglass leaving splinters of sorrowstone of all of those many tainted times the myriad of creations shared love was the one thing we couldn’t make together it was a compatibility of incompatibilities […]
broken zipper run off the track exposing the truth of liability in the non-sequitur pandering of invisible worryknots the button popped off the dust jacket of inconsequential miasma leaving a haze filled with cobwebs in bartered hope commonality is the first of many lies lost in the ever vapid currents of once upon a time
it’s impossible to tell if it is fireworks or gunshots until you feel the back of your head explode patriotic or plain psychotic is in the many faceted eye of the beholder so if you see a man in his boxers screaming the sky is falling with a tin foil hat he could be going […]
she made eye contact from across the room her lips pursed a calculating look in her bottomless brown eyes it was accidental that he caught that gaze one in which he flushed bright scarlet she stared even harder he never heard the word execration until much later but when he did he knew the feel […]
when the long brush strokes of another painted day fade from view the canvas is born anew by the cleansing strains of serendipity across the open floodplain of residual loveterrors dripping with acrid leftovers of the restraints shown in the face of passionately hatefucking the tepid water in pain renewed harken thee not into the […]
you forgot yourself in my shadow as i became thought you shared the silence of nothing when death was in vogue rattling chains in the solitude of never i was the storm shaking the windows of the temple you knelt in supplication within lost in prayer in that quiet moment you and i became we […]
he was akin to the mask sitting askew upon his paltry brow weak chinned with two eyes like inkspatters around the margins ravenous yet seldom eating starvation led to great equations
As the first shovelful of dirt rained down upon the wooden lid, he began to stir. The sound of thunder crackled above. He could see nothing. His arms pinned to his sides. At first he thought it was rain, sleep paralysis. Then his hands found the satin lining. The darkness became suffocating. He worked his […]
his reflection bounced off the stonemaggots deep within the silvery ore they slithered in mercurial grace as if under his skin they crawl the worldmirror shattered under the intensity of his vacant gaze fissure form across his face
the lush grass wet with rain from a rambling little storm against my bare feet as i luxuriate beneath the onyx blanket of scattered diamonds the heat of the day turns into the heat of the evening with humid breath against sweat slick skin her sky is azure brilliance mine muted by light pollution a […]
she stares at me like destruction eroding the cellular walls of insular childhood ignominy her nuclear caress against blistered skin threads the needle of agony with an ecstacy chill she sloughs the skin of salted worry leaving etchings carved into the skeletalwomb of anguish
the history books tell a beautified take of rising up in the face of those that would crush them the reality was never so pretty ask the natives ask the chinese ask the irish ask the italians ask the africans the melting pot has always had a layer of char floating, a sickness in the […]
heads bent in benediction at the trough of heavenly delight the sacrament laid out buffet style with hibachi chefs flipping wafers in to the open mouths of silent pennance the neon cross flickers with residual static as the dissonance between god and man broadens like a chasm birds bathe in the holy water font while […]
she is insubstantial as starlight brightening the sky but the light diffuses right before lightening my spirit a wisp that floats dark against the night smoke that lingers with a heady scent of lavender loss on the breeze this constant ache replaced with sorrowful reminiscences does she see me as i see her a shadow […]
thistlescars made of heartsbane spun of glass in the empty castle of the soul at the bottom of an aquarium on an end table adjacent to the edge of the world
resilliant resistant persisting through disillusionment a tin can telephone sending missed calls to inattentive ears an important message carved into young flesh to fester forgive me mother for i have sinned in truth forgive me father for i have lived on after you forgive me daughter for i have not always been a man forgive […]
lost in translation the emancipation of flagrant anticipation left to boil in the fervent need of another day in nowhere another night spent chasing wishes casting lines casting nets casting spells casting calls the call of the wild wonder of whimsy cashed in like chips at the table chip off the old block old denim […]
stream of consciousness dream of unconsciousness ream of paper beam of light reflected off a skyscraper scamper to the hamper to answer the questions hawk circles thermals drift slowly rabbit hops in the thick underbrush beneath the mesquite thorns corded muscles the vein pulses in his forehead another lost soul drifting in the middle of […]
the master link was removed and the chain went flying into the bowels of the machine the master link was removed and the chain went flying into the bowels of the machine a simple thing the master link a locking clip then it falls apart to change the chain requires more than two hands the […]
he jettisoned the artificial atmosphere out into the vacuum of space in a sudden flash of insanity he had grown tired of the endless nothing hidden behind thick shielding that protected from solar radiation gave in to the soft call of oblivion whispering in the loneliness of the capsule halted gasps as his eyes pooled […]
i drove between orange cones like a maniac clamtongue with sea salt blood and anger boiling in gouts of briney spew like the liquefied remains of earnest hopes scalded by abusive mothers filled with the special indignation only the narcissistic self loathing can muster i told myself if she raised that hanger again to hell […]
she dances in front of the window a lone candle flickers behind her the light sends shadows across the lot to my apartment draws my eyes she dances unaware of my eyes upon her the way she sways as sinuous as the flickering light itself an intense eroticism i strain to hear the music that […]
in my life i have played a lot of games card video board made up pen and paper you name it but i never figured out the games people play with emotions i am a lot of things most bad but i never entered into a conversation with the express aim to toy with someone […]
the evening rode him as fiercely as any lover ever had caressing his naked body blanketing him in it’s intangible grasp he sits rock hard in the sheer darkness his mind only on her
she pulled a shard of glass from beneath her left breast with a wince of pain masked by a smile i watched heartblood drip in fat crimson drops onto the barren soil beneath her bare feet her smile held a tinge of sadness as she looked deeply into my eyes clutching the soulglass meant for […]
she lays silently the plastic wrap clings to her still form her blue lips locked in a rictus of fear her staring eyes still scream accusations the shiny gray duct tape bracelets dulled in the muted light of another migraine sitting in the darkened room a faint smile erased by another grimace of pain flashes […]
i have seen the swarming blades like flies on the bloated carcass ripe with gases in the hot summer afternoon of yet another installment of hell on earth danced in the hurricane of murderous intent with nary a glance nor assumption as to which hand holds the end of this wasted life of lies
the lone lightbulb hangs from the wire sways on the errant wind of ghosts dancing in the murkiness of the basement with cracked concrete floor and the pervading scent of mold of mildew of coppery hints at hidden nefarious deeds done in the faint light of the incandescent bulb the shadows stretch angrily as the […]
take the void and all the goddamned lies of duplicitous doorknobs dangling participles undifferentiated nightshivers creeping up your spineless quivering jellyfish disassociation regress backwards with your drooling misanthropic nature hidden behind compassionate facades your eyesluts honeyed words dripping from a serpents tongue to sizzle acidicly take the void and all the goddamned lies the duplicity […]
she has the eyes of an angel the lips of the devil the curves of a seaside road at dusk and the hands of a serial killer she has the voice of salvation the scent of damnation the heart of devotion spoken between beats and the mind of a poetic scholar in her is equal […]
Dear readers Hello, my name is Mike and I am addicted to music and writing and Her. It could be worse, it could be drugs. So I have slipped back into the spell of Idles since they did an NPR Tiny Desk concert Thursday. I’d gone cold turkey for months and suddenly the spiders danced […]
i am prone to musical obsessions falling into a band no other satisfying for weeks on end once kicked i avoid them for a bit afraid of relapsing into the catalogue of brilliance again so excuse me while i play joy as an act of resistance on repeat for the next couple days or weeks
in his mind she was a buffet of extravagance a feast for hungry eyes for tasting tongue for savage desire a cornucopia of earthly pleasures wrapped in the most delightful package he was hungry as well he realized mixing metaphors combining hungers knowing neither would be satisfied with empty turns of phrase empty ability to […]
the common misconception is the wax melted causing the fall another angel to plummet down ever down into the soil of an unmarked grave lost to the annals of time it was the cold that made the wax brittle that wilted the feathers it was poor design based on apprehension forged in fear laid out […]
feels as if a rat has taken up residence in my head gnawing at the wires short circuiting the connections between real and dream feels as if a rat has curled up in my chest slowly devouring my heart until all that remains is the wispy memory of a fully functional being this body of […]
there is a fortune of misfortune in a plethora of ideas but an inability to settle upon one so i write a thousand words in each as an exercise to stretch my brain on the assumption one will stick my faith in my abilities has been greatly tested not in my words but the chance […]
i listen to her breathing just grateful to share time with her sending my love to her as she sleeps does she understand the simple joy i receive simply knowing she exists that everyday is brighter because of it the contentment of a life with her after so long searching giving up in the face […]
passengers, this is your captain speaking, i am not a religious man, nor am i good father or husband i cheat, drink, curse, speed, ogle, manipulate, aggravate, intimidate, perpetrate, instigate, and when i was thirteen stole an entire series of books suffice it to say when my time of reclining comes, the fires of hell […]
walking on eggshells on broken glass barefoot each sliver covered in salt salty from another missed opportunity another missing seance for the lost soul of happiness given a viking funeral off the shores of this valhalla made of matchsticks and driftwood a lone tear trails down through the cracked foundation painting pretty cheeks a pale […]
she read me poetry as i drove down the crowded highway the words were mine but the meaning shifted as i heard them from another mouth they became disassociated with my tangled self perception became something different i could finally see in a new light
pulverized by pedantically worrysome thoughtspeak cinnamon and lilacs float across inflamed sinal dismay if silence can be deafening the converse must be true joy is silent ignored by fleeting signals of emotional decay freshly shaven skull filled with fire ants marching scurrying little bastards with naught but insolence
i sold my dreams for a moment’s peace my soul for a bit of comfort my mind was denied left to collect dust while my heart was not mine to give away this husk was soured by radon gas by additives in genetically modified corn codified as it was well preserved for use as a […]
it was a huge mistake of epic proportions it was a disaster wrapped in shiny red paper with a bow stuck to the side hell made real but it was necessary even if it didn’t seem so at the time
fight or flight wrong or right the negative sun shines throughout the perpetual night of misery living life on the edge of an eclipse duality through finality walking the edge of oblivion without a care in the world
So I buckled down and selected 250 pages of poetry for a collection. It is ready sent to my agent who is currently shopping it out. So be prepared for the Fool’s forthcoming second collection, Unpoetry. This is the working cover right now by the talented Becky Narron. No idea when or if it will […]
Hello dear friends and readers I hope this letter finds you in good spirits. Me? I’m taking a working vacation from the Manic Word Depot for a few days. It’s been brought to my attention that I need to stop complaining and sort through the 2400(?!?!) poems I have scribbled and make a collection of […]
spin the threads of hearttuft into the webs of deceit then marvel at the prey caught in predatory shimmering nothings these savage revelries of debased shrugged off emotion litter the ground at your hastily stepping feet cupid’s bow notched with gorgon’s arrows lead not to love but the simmering cookpots of time shaven into a […]
my soul has been stamped with next day air postage quickly vacating this shambling body like the coward it is i screamed i would see it in hell at the top of my lungs as it fled like a comet into the horizon i feel gray now the absence of anything i think i like […]
the rudderless boat swept along into the open mouth of the tentacled beast that swallows all lonely seafarers eventually ground to paste in the crushing throat of barbs and hooks made for only destruction never knowing anything but hunger
her every exhale is timed to my inhalation she grinds against me with burning need that can only be reciprocated with every nerve in my body my arm fits perfectly across her ribs her breast fills the palm of my hand as if sculpted specifically for it we are a jigsaw puzzle of ravenous hunger […]
small towns make me feel a sense of comfort deep in my city boy bones even as they weird me out after so long removed smiles and nods from every person even as they give an odd look at earrings and tattoos of blue flames and hades but accepting nonetheless
a tumor on the base of the spine golf ball sized growing rapidly into a mass of cancerous dissent to rally the white blood cells of desperate disgust an insular godlike growth girth and heft a microcosm of sinful slices along the spinal column hollow bird bones marred marrow as misshapen clots travel vascular byways […]
feels as if the ridicule reticule is aimed a little too close to home the subsonic lasers trained on the third eye let pulses fly into another shipwrecked fantasy singing along with the pigeons begging for yet another scrap of bread lost in the ever winding spiralling arm of the milky way searching for my […]
sitting on a parking garage roof watching the world spin itself into a stupor was in a hurry to wait now i am in a hurry to find something to do but for all the gears screaming there seems to be no traction to be gained in the viscosity of perilous nothing so i am […]
some people have grand plans saving up to make them real i have a burnt out light in the bathroom brushing my teeth in the dark thinking three more weeks and i will buy a new bulb stories race through my mind the next poem needs to be written one hundred and some odd days […]
i’ve got a hot glue gun a pile of feathers and so many dreams yet to fulfill with your help maybe i can reach them
cornerstone king at the corner store buying lottery tickets to scratch like the scabs that form across his flea bitten limbs in hopes of replenishing the coffers of another fallen kingdom destitute like the disease laden whores that litter the alleyways of avalon fallen
her touch erased the scars of years of abuse leaving fresh pink skin her smile erased the words driven like spikes into lagging muscle reborn in the flames of raw emotion as the past vanishes slowly, burnt line by line from the histories of a broken fool
i’ve become so spooled around her heart that when she exerts herself my breathing becomes labored as i am compressed tighter and tighter still every beat of her pulse sends shivers of rapturous bliss coursing through the rigid spines of my coiled spring existence
within the apex of heartthorne lies the municipality of inward facing space filled to overflowing with retributive angst long winded diatribes unsubstansive the respites reverse polarity forming a rhombus filled with spite
we dance on the edge of a razor with the effortless grace of a drunken fool intoxicated with chemicals that flush through limbic systems wreaking havoc eschewed of ambiance the congress of ravens watch with beady eyed disdain
i take umbrage in the burnt umber of the dying light for every day banished into night another star falls as i lay dreaming of pastel pastures encroaching darkness screams hollow hallowed or holy the vestibule of sin sets with dismay
Mike's Manic Word Depot 