she shuffles down the sidewalk in a dirty pair of slippers with smiley face socks crying softly to herself as she listens to a voice on the other end of the phone he walks down the street with the cocky swagger of someone who has absolutely no clue about the state of affairs around him […]
the elevator smelled like urine with flickering yellowed tubes above dirty green linoleum beneath the empty hallways seemed like something right out of a horror film a squeaking sound from around one of the blind corners set his nerves on edge the cleaning woman smiled nicely as he swallowed the lump in his throat smiling […]
he is leather parchment stretched against a screaming skeleton and miles of veins filled with sludge like sorrow all that separates him from the yawning chasm of hell inspired fantasy is the tethered weather worn soul like the flag forgotten in the wars of time long gone the poor bastard
when the group refused to read my writings a scintilla of doubt was planted within me when they leapt to read the other writers the scintilla blossomed into a bush with prickly thorns days later the scintilla become bush has become a forest and none of the words feel right i sit on the bleachers […]
the difference between accident and miracle is the same slight thread between prayer and pleading the raven watches uncaring from it’s roost in the roots of rancorous ridicule i listen to sylvia plath read her poetry the oven light left on in an absurdist bit of hope to gather her spirit to bless my quill […]
i play this game called dealing with the world roulette in order to deal with the world i take copious amounts of drugs then get as much accomplished as possible before the drugs make it impossible usually i get my shoes on slump over sleep the day away dreaming of all the bastards i narrowly […]
i dreamt in this dream i dreamt i was handed a book i frowned confused and flipped the tissue paper pages with little tchochkies attached each story was one i had only dreamed but forgotten yet as the pages turned i recalled each with vividness it was a lovely tome that turns to smoke as […]
i saw that boy in the mirror again this morning. i am sure i have mentioned it before but it has been a couple months since the last time. i was brushing my teeth and trying my best to get ready for work when i noticed him staring over my shoulder. he looked at my […]
the light filters through the blinds through the smoke in wavy lines across the empty room the orange ember of the lit cigarette reflected back from the dead television screen the only sign of life flares occasionally the crackle of tobacco an accompaniment to the lazy exhale the birds are silent or he is deaf […]
he couldn’t play the piano but he could bang his frustrations feelings of hopelessness out on the keys he couldn’t dance but he could thrash his limbs to and fro in time with the beat he couldn’t face himself but he could pretend to try he knew he would never play piano but he banged […]
the gates to heaven shook as his heart threatened to escape the confines of his chest pearlescent bricks turned to shrapnel to tumble down through the clouds meteors crashing to the earth shuddering with every impact as his breath caught in his throat agony ecstacy wrapped in a death grip as his stomach dropped to […]
i wore a sandwich board that reads the end has come and gone this is the after party the aftermath after mass has reached critical levels tipped the scales it is all downhell from here no one cared so i set myself on fire feeding undifference with indifference unvisible in the invisible light of the […]
it was evolutionary the bleeding out of the revolutionary from the spiral strands of who i was the rubber bullets clouds of pepper spray lost their appeal when it became clear that both sides were the same coin reflections refractions of the same hands moving the chess pieces across the invisible gradient now my anarchist […]
i had set out on my search for her envisioning myself as galahad or possibly lancelot astride my charger yet as i charge windmills another series of mistaken dragons i realize i always knew which knight-errant i truly was the worry was would she see me as i am or just another rust covered fool […]
Hello dear reader Been a long spell since the fool rambled that wasn’t half baked poetry or some plug for something or other. Rutger Hauer died today. I’m not really one of those that gets over sentimental about dead celebrities. Besides my father, death and I have an understanding. It happens. It sucks. But the […]
pouring yourself onto the page whether in fiction or prose is a sentimental vulnerable thing when you feel as if no one supports your spillage it makes it that much more difficult to give when the taking is all you feel he sits alone in his car listening to the bugs the crickets hidden in […]
the words dance just out of reach behind a wall of pressure they long to be laid out upon the page but circle like dust motes if i squint hard enough i can see the pattern but the difference between squint and closed is negligible so i long to sleep and silence them
every page of my personal diary on public display public dismay the letters spread out for easy consumption common assumption assuming the truth in the things they choose to define from the diction the dictionary defining the terms they choose to ignore to abhor relying on the defiance perpetual reliance on the words between the […]
the hail of cannon fire rocked the deck the smell of copper filled the air the scream of the main riggings drowned out by the screams of the dead and dying the captain shouted orders as plumes of black smoke rose from the english ship the red coated soldiers clung desperately to whatever they could […]
the river vomited her secrets into the sea part and parcel leaving it all bare to the salty waters of inconsequential dream the sea gives her heart to the skies in vaporous lust manifested into storm clouds that cling to the edge of forever as i sit on the rocks watching with a longing to […]
she awoke in her satin lined bed as the sun set softly to the west her first thought as eyes snapped open was that of hunger desire need she rose her diaphanous white gown streaming in the cool breeze behind her down the rough hewn stone lined passages she moved bare feet making no sound […]
reckless but not wreckless left a trail of broken parts behind dominant from the submissive state in charge at the working end of the whip now tighten the collar but know the one thing unknown is how to utter the safe word
it’s the sudden silence the sudden stop from the go go go to the emptiness of falling in newtonian liquids it is a silence that either is deafening or a precursor to having gone deaf dead numbed left out to dry in the sun salted filetted preserved in amber the candle snuffed out as the […]
he woke wracked with pain unaware of where he had fallen he remembered the feeling of stomach in his throat as the vacuum of space wrapped around him like a lover’s embrace he was surrounded by darkness flat on his back slowly he got up craned his neck to see a spot of blue far […]
the quartermaster ran to the deck with a tattered piece of paper clenched in his gnarled scurvy ridden hands the seas were boiling the skies dark gray punctuated with strikes of purple lightning the captain navigated the deck with peg leg tapping heavily on the salt water soaked wood his sunken eyes dinner plate sized […]
out of the cave she took her first tentative steps into the dust filled sky the meteor fell as she had foretold while staring into her cauldron of bubbling brew the rains would come soon thundering across the forest to shake the very spiralling steps at which lay the one thing she desires over all […]
she felt the earth tremble beneath bare feet as the branches swayed heavily on the shockwaves she curled into a ball as the dust clouds swept down into the forest the last thing she saw was a spark grow ever closer from the bright star in the ladle in the sky her bear clutched tightly […]
a luxurious massage scraping enamel from tender tooth decay with bare roots left to rot in fluoride springs the tenacious tongues whispered sonnets of flaccid bridge collapse each pore a gasping whore in the humid dentata dementia
she wore an amethyst ring but i never noticed it so enthralled with her smile it never dawned on me to look at her hands purple is my favorite color amethyst my favorite stone it is her birthstone she said suddenly it went from my favorite color my favorite gem to an embodiment of her […]
we laughed like unholstered pistols danced like brandished blades we stood out like tendons strung on a giants wrist when the cannons fired across the eastern sky the commotion awoke the monsters from deep slumber still we smiled like freshly stropped razors glinting across the marbled seas
she left me handcuffed to the bedpost with no warning just smiled that sweet little smile then proceeded to walk out of the room fully nude my wrists are chafed my shoulders ache i hear her in the other room on the phone with her mother i would call out but the ball gag is […]
he watched the empty plastic bag blow around the parking lot he watched wondering was it an apt allegory for him part of him screamed no but deep down it felt correct
i would roll up my sleeves to face the day but the left shoulder is at thirty percent mobility covered in sweat as i roll out of bed already too tired to face the same day as yesterday one day is the same as tomorrow as the one that came before as the one that […]
he stood at the edge of polaris listening to the faintest of sounds then smiled sadly let himself slip off the edge to plummet like another fallen star himself the witch brayed like a mule with a toothache inside her cave loud enough to rattle the bones that hung from stalactites all around her but […]
My next story, ‘Movie Night’, is out today in the anthology from Death’s Head Press. 22 more tales of revenge. Dig Two Graves: An Anthology Vol. II https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950259137/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_UwWlDbH5FJSS0
jittery over caffeinated under slept drained at the speed of sound enraptured in the speed of love chained to the radiator of one thousand suns pulsating pure anxiety into the brain stem of tomorrow
he couldn’t tell if the world was outside his door or if it was a wolf lurking in the night he figured out the secret to the maze was to run headlong into every wall to make his own trail to the center of the illusion he didn’t know if the howling was the wind […]
help needed: he had become the invisible man. it was gradual at first. but then he looked in the mirror and he was gone. everywhere he went he was like a ghost. his voice the rustle of autumn leaves. lost: childlike wonder and hope. last seen forever ago. i miss you. come home. for sale: […]
the millipede ran down my spine as i sat sipping whiskey from a styrofoam cup staring at the world through booze tinted malaise in boxers and a yellow sweat stained shirt from the balcony of another dead end realization the dripping water from the faucet played an echoed hellfire orchestra on an already damaged head […]
a glass box hung with care two hearts intertwined pinned across a field of lavender a raven’s feather in alabaster white a sketch of an aardvark imposed upon starry night a rabbit with dragon wings another rabbit on it’s back with eyes wide filled with adoration a yin yang two halves swirled a glass box […]
i am bad at being a human bad at understanding at signals at most things never an inkling never a clue just shuffle along this mortal coil with downcast eyes one foot in front of the other doing my best at not doing what i do best which is usually doing the wrong thing at […]
the ribbons hung limply as she stared out at the staircase she wondered if faeries really existed if one could see her would come to her set her free from the shackles of fear she sighed long and low as tears welled in her eyes the ivory stairs reflecting the bars of sunlight across the […]
https://yournextbeachread.com/2019/07/16/m-ennenbach-author-of-notches/ The Fool is your next Beach Read! Still a ton of summer left to grab a copy of Notches for your beach lounging. Notches: A Collection https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950259102/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_k9DlDbE2PEFRG All typos are voice to text as I did the questions while driving and let it lie like it was. I thought it was funny. There is […]
and he sat on the north star with tears frozen on his cheeks like diamonds catching the errant light of passing comets he could not see but he felt a tugging in his soul he watched with strained vision searching for the thing that sent shivers through him knowing it wasn’t just the cold of […]
she gave me a prompt about being color blind but she said colour blind it was then it hit me it isn’t the same without u, without you, without a reason to bask in the many varied colors, the many shades of colours, the missing u, missing you, makes it all shades of black and […]
the witch wasn’t always the monster she had one day awoken to find herself once upon a time she had dreams, aspirations, goals but she found her prince charming was not so chivalrous and in her heart was planted a thorn with poisonous intent it festered and rotted until she looked on the outside as […]
she waited unaware of the man in the stars or the witch in the hut as sunlight filtered down through the canopy of trees a raven landed softly on the branches of the strong old oak soon another then another until the black eyes stared at her one hundred fold the oak seemed to ripple […]
he was born of fire quenched in the unmelting heart of the north star high above the clouds his eyes were the color of dying embers in ash but his lips had the hint of blue from years spent trapped in the farthest reaches of space the clouds obscure the forest from the eyes of […]
leeches, barnacles and a thick coat of gull shit across every wooden plank i was an island just withing view of the shore, but no matter how i strained there was no way i could touch the land across the azure waves let’s begin at the beginning instead of sitting at the end of the […]
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 […]
Mike's Manic Word Depot 