if you

if your ear were next to my lips i would kiss it and whisper my love softly as i fall asleep if your mouth were next to mine i would kiss you as passionately as the rain kisses the dry ground if your head was on my chest my heart beat would sing a lullaby […]

dreamspit

the slimy tentacles of time slither among the driftwood of consequences hail to thee oh bearded bastards of angst immemorial hail hail forsaken the dreamspit the splinter in the eye of fate the waste water rapids of youthful indiscretions rancorous is the need in the face of patience rancid is the respite between here and […]

blue and red

when you contacted me out of the blue so long after our last contact had left me feeling blue i felt the tingling of suspicion creep across my soul to trail freezing blue fingers down my spine our last talk had made me see red my face was flushed with anger all i could see […]

birds

the world outside is flooded, reclaimed by the lakes, remnants of the glaciers that once carved this land ages ago it is just the birds and i lars sings about yugoslavia being blown to bits, she’s looking to the west, she’s trying to look her best the birds don’t care, this is their land now, […]

park

the park is quiet for such a lovely day the sun is shining the wind is light and feels good across the freshly shaven skull her image is all i can see her smile is the sun her whisper is the wind all i could want yet here i sit watching life go by around […]

growth

looking back i see an incomplete version of the fool to come searching for what he was not ready to find through the pain of it i realize it took more pain more need more longing to get to the me that is ready for a new growth spurt i will never stop evolving but […]

pray

i pray with doll hands clenched tightly in my fists a rosary of spent shells a crucifix that has seen too many last fixes a burnt spoon a crusty needle empty baggies with residues of days spent lost i pray with indecent devotion the belief of a magician the truth of a trickster the hope […]

loco-motiveless

he flapped his lips like an epiglottis in perpetual loop none of the things he said carried any weight yet the gravitas in which he spoke them beguiled like the steam whistle on a train in the middle of nowhere riding the track towards the end of the line a controlled study on uncontrolled radio […]

finished tale

i feel like a half gnawed apple core tossed onto the side of road and left to fester with ants on my corpse a mouth eaten flag waving limply in the breeze a cipher indecipherable overly complex for such a simpleton whenever i finish what i set out to do i am left drained of […]

nesting

even in the quiet moment of reflection the memorydagger stabs through the curtain of fond remembrance to shred the veil into paper dolls of pain past insidious mental scars like matryoshka dolls nesting in each puckered line harken thee unrepentant spirit flee the hallowed halls of dusty relic take root within another dried nightmare

help

i’ve been trapped in this escape room for days now no clues as to how to find the exit i’ve torn everything apart in frantic need to leave in my mind i know it is my living room but that living hasn’t occured in it for so long it is a subsisting room a room […]

ants

mastodon playing in my functional ear as i sit in the drizzle watching people watch me watch them foot tapping to the beat phone in my hand, thumbs tapping along with the wailing guitars they wander lost in their own daydream as i daydream new lives for them moments like this i think of the […]

indistinct

a culmination of events a fractal shifting kaleidoscopic nuance bedazzled with extraneous narratives from the fourteenth dimensional fracture it pieces together slowly, but not beginning with edges and corners an ink blot rorschach vision from italian horror directors trapped in a blizzard in the desolate wastelands of pluto’s elliptical orbit the pressure so intense it […]

time travel

orion’s belt sits sagging across the waist of the sky above me as i wish to travel forward into the future to lay next to you fifteen hours ahead seems like an easy feat for this amateur bender of time just need to strap on my thinking cap and make it happen

picnic

her naked form covered in pollen that clings to every curve of her perfection the sun dances upon her skin as my tongue plays down her spine like a a silken hammer along the xylophone keys of her vertebrae her tailbone signals the eventual plunging into the simmering waters of her desire how her moans […]

gaze

into your eyes i cast the net of my gaze in hopes of capturing a hint of the light you so effortlessly shine onto my mind my head was filled with the headstones of hopes long dead before you razed the top soil of decay exposing fertile earth once again

meaning

i sometimes grow concerned worried you don’t quite know what i mean when i say i love you that you hear the words flash back to sweaty teenage need or hear all of the times it was spoken but turned out to be a lie when i say them it is all encompassing it is […]

my name

speak my name bind me to your tongue let my longing snake throughout your mind entangle your dream call my name let it ring in the sullen night let the feel of my fingers slide down your soft flesh say my name in hushed whisper so i may find you in this maze of hedgerows […]

one winged

the one winged raven like silver maple seeds spins in the vast azure above a feathered cyclone whipping dirt stinging the chafed skin of ruddy cheeks i squint into the sun to stare without knowledge as the raptor grows closer inquisitive yet filled with fear black feathers like daggers slice i let my arms fall […]

for that

i see her not with eyes blinded by the world around but with a newly awoken third eye that cuts through the detritus of this modern age of shame filled lies with a sense of connection magnetic otherworldy in scope it slices the rejoinders the epidermis to expose the hidden layers of truth buried in […]

ode to spring

on mulberry leaves we float upon the winding streams of fornever into the heart of spring where stars flicker like candles at dusk the caterpillar gorges itself to become a mouth less moth

pieces

you drift along the ever changing landscape of my mind an echo a fragment inserted in my every thought a piece of you remains prevalent as if you were always an important part even before i was aware of your existence

(un)titled surrender V

it’s the unwritten pages of this manuscript that hold my attention the blank pages that call my mind the poems unspoken the future as yet unfolded so many words spent pining for what was thought unreal turned to reality now i share my quill with her hand letting her help design how the words sing […]

absolution

she walks across the room absolution in her every step turning the pages of my unread novel with effortless grace i am transfixed upon her every mood lost in her eyes

garden

what if the words you had written in the depths of breakdown of desperation of hopeless dream what if those words found purchase in the soil sprouted into a plant bear fruit bear blossom could you would you take a bite of the apple of your misery smell the fragrance of your desire i have […]

guide

to your right lies the caverns of savage indignation to your left the stars shimmer cascade like a dream i stand betwixt one hand holding each at bay let my smile guide us into the ink spots of eternity

attention

what brought us together shakes the earth apart as if incapable of comprehension that which tore us apart is bespectacled amusement in the sad eyes of porcelain dolls standing raptly in uniform attention

forgot myself

the moment i forgot myself in you was the moment you found me it sounds ridiculous but only in forgetting did the mask slip down letting the real raw emotion pour forth in the moment i forgot myself i was so bewildered by you that my heart stopped we found each other then something magical […]

sleep time

it rests in shadow hidden from sight as your errant gaze sweeps past it unknots itself to stand towering above as you tremble patting it’s quivering belly mouth opens impossibly wide with row upon row of jagged defilement inarticulate fear becomes all you know as you stare into the the spiralling eye of death

now

it was a transitive state of dissonance, a celestial paradox, a pair of ducks on a riding lawn mower, a snow blower, a snow globe with happy new year written inside it was watching the water go down the drain, drained of wherewithal, with out while so heavily content that tears flowed down onto the […]

operating

flashing led indicators, hypnotic green flashes, the heartbeat of communication, as fast as thought, impossible to quantify amber, red and green follow the traces, everything is just a doorway, either telling you open or closed, chips, capacitators, resistors, diodes and fuses a neural network made mechanical, a brain without thought of it’s own electrical impulses, […]

trapped

trapped in a basement the sun is shining somewhere above i can’t stop thinking of freedom of her i doubt i would even if i could

bumbling along today my head is in the clouds while my legs barely move through the syrupy serendipity of sloughing through life one instance at a time have you ever just spent twenty minutes staring at someone with nothing but adoration written upon your face longed to reach out and brush the stray hairs behind […]

in answer to your email

i received an email the other day regarding my writing it always makes me curious, makes me think of how it must have been in the old days when someone would pen a letter and mail the query to someone else days waiting for the letter to arrive wondering if it would be read or […]

birdkowski

i took a little walk this morning after the eighth time waking from broken sleep to clear my head or so i assumed the angry gnomes dislike peace tranquility is the antithesis of their existence so i walked to my favorite bench and greeted the rising sun with a snarl the damned birds singing sweet […]

2430

tenebrae’d extinguished by fingers that should have touched with love only to put out the flame smoky trails dance into the sky the last parting gift of the fool tenebrae’d

ode to summer

at the burgeoning cusp of summer sits the raven on a bed of rose petals feverishly guarding the bright days with beak and talon at the ready to swipe spring dies a cancerous death falling away into burning misery for one alone the raven cares not for sentimentality it seeks to fly to fuck to […]

ear

on nights like this i think of vincent’s ear the pain of life severed in pursuit of one’s true desire to carve one’s self to find meaning in the agony the need to have an outlet for the anguish to bleed it’s nights like this i sit and ponder vincent’s ear it didn’t know the […]

my study

i line my mind with tapestries woven of soft thread and razor wire a plethora of memories of which to pluck errant strings letting my life unravel before my very mind’s eyes hides and skins draped over childhood reminders firetrucks metal coat hangers toy cars mounds of dirt to race them to erase them bury […]

one end

they sat on the stoop, a new generation put to the test, mass consumption of crystal pepsi meth, they all seem to suspect the end of the game but they play it anyway with abandoned hope see the rules are fluid, there is no way to win, just get inebriated to the point where you […]

disparate

like swimming in an oil slick, coated in the viscosity of every errant thought, unable to find purchase on the smooth cut stone of wonder like diving into the fire itself, the sins of tomorrow ignite like fireflies dancing down every ganglia, frying like bacon spitting into the breeze again it’s like that, freezing in […]

morning queries

does the shadow of the anchor weigh as heavily on the mind as crude pig iron catching on the coral hidden beneath can the wisp of thought carry a burden as great as atlas holding up the heavens to slowly buckle the knees and break backs

only way

we did it the only way we knew how we were born apart but slowly we fell back together the celestial bodies give no real answers just questions born whole yet it took falling apart to come together did we follow the blinking lights in the sky i cannot say just that we did it […]

-decahedronically speaking-

decahedronic hydroponic – hooked on phonetically speak and spelling – the sails of sundered hope doth flutter in the sapient sunrise of the soul across missing missives misty and misdiagnosed poisonous – a rivulet of slime from snail mail sent letters of adoration – the hunched back of the letter carrier carrying hope from eight […]

breaking

lavender dappled torture chambers in fields of saplings stunted by the chemical spills the hum drum horizons overlook the bent shapes of agonized pupas forced into spiked cocoons iron maidens and rusted chains with crimson stained shackles litter the pavement along side amino acidic rain slicks with pollywogs evolving into meta displays of darwinian dismay […]

2383

she sends chemtrails racing through the embers in her eyes across time sonically harmonic in the ratio of permission to permitted staring into the device basking under ultraviolet skies lost in a lover’s embrace of fiery desire to sleep to behold her ravishing beauty while the body languishes

crumpled

balls of crumbled paper litter the floor around the trash can the sun dances on her skin, no, the wind plays through her hair, no, her eyes sparkle like fathomless jewels, no insipid wasted ideas gone wrong from brain to hand to pen the rain falls like tears from the unblinking eyes of eternity, yet […]

2378

i wrote a brilliant masterpiece the words spoke from the depths of my soul sang a song that made tears fall from my eyes across the screen of my phone it was perfect a crowning piece of poetry and then i accidentally deleted it you’ll have to take my word for it it would have […]

shades

it is said no two people see the same thing the same way that it is interpreted differently by each individual colored by each mind in subtle shades so close your eyes picture the sun fat in the sky feel my hand upon yours hear my voice whisper lovingly into your ear my breath upon […]

Review for my collection, Notches by Chris Miller

BOOK REVIEW: Notches by M. Ennenbach “Once in a great while, we stumble across a work of literature that transcends not only our expectations but genre and definability itself. NOTCHES by M. Ennenbach is one of those works, and it cannot be stressed enough that reading this collection will not only entertain you, but it will […]

crimson fantasy

it’s impossible to remain rational when impossibilities are all you can fathom is it rational to believe in the impossible when your mind insists on rationalizing back and forth like a teeter totter across the playground erected in the mind’s eye bloody imprints litter the ground around me yet all i see are crimson fantasies

dodos

ever since i read the eyre affair i have wanted a pet dodo last night i dreamt we had a little farm where we grew vegetables had a pet alpaca and two dodos that waddled around one had green feathers the other lavender they weren’t great pets but they were ours and you looked lovely […]

our blood

our blood runs like the tides our feverish need the moon above she is my ebb and i her flow together we make the lands around us tremble our hearts thunder like a blacksmith’s hammer raining sparks from the white hot iron of our love our blood runs like the tides our feverish need the […]

the devil

had a message from the devil waiting for me to read yes a message from the devil sent to me another message from the devil written for me how the devil tries to plant her wicked seed i thought this devil was far behind me yet there she sat waiting to speak to me i […]

choose

i change my cadence to fit my mood, my style to cover a lack of substance, my metaphors to fill the cracks sometimes the words drip like hallucinogenic honey tangential madness in small clusters or rapid fire brain sparks, dark marks, as i forget where it was going but the word play seems to ixnay […]

felt

he fell one moment the ground was there the next nothing falling through the space between seconds into the cracks in the infernal machinery that grinds all bodies into perpetual entropy one moment you are here the next gone he fell into a mobius loop of illusionary grace to become one with nothing to become […]

peace

anxious feeling in my guts gnawing at any sense of peace that may try and find purchase in the barren soil of soul wrenching torment all the king’s soldiers and all the king’s men couldn’t put the fool back into a semblance of normal again teetering at the brink of mental collapse like the stock […]

villainy

i root for the villains for the monsters for the creatures that crawl forth from the depths of hell itself they resonate to my broken mind more than the perfect hero with a million watt smile that gets the girl and the fame the darkness that fills my mind and soul can feel the pain […]

2354

in the tempered spring of consciousness i float along the winding river of whimsical wonderings so far from dry land this abomination in quasi-human form, trembling uncontrollably, from nerves or exposure or a combination of both ethereal epidural patches that blossom with strident colours across the bare patches of mindless inconsistency longing for a dock […]

sanguine lips

the fevered wound borders the sagging sky of howling infidelity infectious splinters of sharp pain induced nightmare trail markers greenish purple bruises swell beneath bloody leather skin a smile tempered with blooming insanity on sanguine lips

27 empty regret filled li(n)es

forever died in a tear soaked manifesto penned by shaking hands as the house burned to the ground around him with nary a sign of notice eternity another falsehood shouted by forked tongues to be banished to the edge of yesterday with the remains of misconstrued mumblings it is all fleeting the pain disappointment every […]

relinquish

the crunch of glass beneath ire the clutch of grace though tired the crutch of hope uninspired the crux of love since retired her eyes carry the weight of longing concealed by the dusty spectre of time, her teeth gone to fang in which to tear the soft flesh of any foolish would be pursuer […]

music box

my heart is a music box capable of playing the loveliest tune though i had thought the melody lost to time with gentle fingers you wound the spring with a faint clicking sound although rusty the music sings out again to fill the quiet night with song

constant

you don’t realize how important things are until they stop working my head is unable to handle the sudden lack of hearing from my left side everything is too loud, as if it goes in the right side and just echoes and rattles within my skull i am having issues dealing with the constant pain, […]

expression

two pillows in the small of his back a tight strip of leather with red stitching around his throat her smiling eyes and hungry mouth hovering in front of him one delicate hand gripped the collar pulling it tight as he leaned forward to meet her lips the world was an explosion of desperate needs […]

ten scenes: eight – the storm

the wind howls as the sky flashes with jagged streaks of angry lightning the trees are bent nearly to breaking, incapable of fighting the tumultuous storm leaves fly like projectiles of destruction, as fat cold drops pummel the ground the clouds fight amongst each other, a mass of ill intent coalescing above the earth shakes […]

if this is

if this is delusion let me dream the skull melts like a candle, dripping down onto the floor on long runs if this is dream let me sleep the rose wilts in the case, longing for the bush outside the picturesque window if this is love let me be yours his eyes glisten with barely […]

inherited dishes

sharing a meal on inherited dishes is like eating with all of the angry spirits of every fight around the dinner table her mother’s linen napkins taste of waxy lipstick and vodka and stale cigarettes every time i wipe my mouth it is like open mouth kissing a corpse

lovelifeanddeath

the saboteur hands grip the ivory pistol grip like a lover caressing the bare back of his heart’s desire the executioner stares with empty eyes at the well worn handle of his axe so lovingly sharpened red and black the blood pools under the strobing light of forever in succinct and succulent sprays time is […]

what is this

fake a smile ignore the pain this too shall pass, eat aspirin like candy aspiring to be somewhere on the border of more or less than what this is what is this heaven is closed for empty vessels like me, hell is concerned i’ll take over, purgatory is pack to the rafters with unbelievers and […]

directions

i have taken so many wrong turns in my life it was only fitting i ended up confused and standing at my destination unaware i was finally there at all two wrongs don’t make a right but three lefts do as a leftie with a penchant for doing the wrong thing at the best possible […]

left

every car and truck on the highway today has had a brake light out a series of random events that seem to be interconnected it feels as if the universal current is aligned with my own my ear is out of commission on the same side as all these lights as if the left half […]

signs

i was driving, mind elsewhere, auto-pilot behind the wheel i don’t get out of the city, not out out, but this morning was an hour out to the east i was watching the landscape, ponds and horses, cattle and verdant fields swaying under charcoal gray skies hypnotized daydreaming about her asking the universe for a […]

broken drum

half my head is as normal as it gets the other half is packed with steel wool covered in fire ants bullet ants army ants devouring all in their path sharp instances of pain in the now deafened half world i exist in where everything is off balance i feel wobbly unsure semi-nauseated in uncomfortable […]

remember the alamo

remember that time i packed up my shit and raced to texas with no thought as to the future just a burning need to be elsewhere before the somewhere i was burned me to a cinder keep it fresh in your head because i am shedding the things i don’t need and going even farther […]

title of ownership

every kiss is a lingering spirit upon my lips every tear still leaves it’s feel upon my cheeks every word ever spoken in love hovers along my tongue my arms feel the heat of every hug given in passionate embrace cast a seance cast away these foul memories with your love salt the earth so […]

the dance

she and i skirted around the edges of love like two well trained ballerinas on stage both knowing a single misstep and we would fall madly and irrevocably into the throes of passion i stumbled once or twice but her gaze locked on mine gave me the strength to dance on and as she was […]

focus

my heart flutters like a hummingbird that found a secret stash of meth in a trailer park in rural arkansas my eardrum was blown out this afternoon my shoulder aches my head throbs but my mind is clearly focused on you

outskirts

outer edges of the great cityscape is always kind of a surprise to this city boy all the amenities of the city but space i like noise, trains and traffic, dour faces and congestion, tall buildings staring down at me in disapproving ignorance it’s the space the bothers me like being trapped in my head […]

mother’s day

i feel nothing but respect for those of you that put your children first that raise them with love lessons turning little monsters into loving adults instilling respect reverence and reality into sponge-like minds you don’t get enough credit enough of a break enough of anything because you give freely even when it would be […]

time out

i turned my head as sleep still held my brain and blinked at the phone to see the time a momentary panic ensued as sleep addled brain misdeciphered digits and i leapt up only to see an hour before the alarm was supposed to sound mocking me from the charger my brain and i have […]

scrap

i found a scrap of paper by my infantile sketchings the word home written and underlined three times why and when i did it i don’t know but it is important or was or could be made me think of you

35 sleepless lines

a lack of sleep a lack of you a lack of sense to sense the need for sleep when all i want is you manic and alone vibrating at the speed of desire times the thin membrane around my brain etched with your name i cut out the best pieces of myself and sketched in […]

us = you and i = i am yours

let’s fall down the cliff together, let’s step into the open elevator shaft, let’s dive head first into a pool without water, we’ll wear floaties and dive dive dive i’ll teach you to swim, i will hold you up as an anchor holds me down, bobbing on the invisible waves of need, of shallow insecurities […]

Heck, eternal dangnation pt II

it i ran Heck the place for people not quite evil enough for Hell all chocolate would taste like kale but only every third or fourth bite there would be chocolate cake every evening and mandatory oh, what’s that you like kale good the kale tastes like jellied eels cooked in raspberry jam

Heck – eternal dangnation pt 1

if i ran Heck the place for people not quite evil enough for Hell everyone’s phones would constantly vibrate as if they had just gotte a text. but only occasionally would they get a text. the first person to respond to a real text would get one year removed from their sentence. but they have […]

simple and succinct

i would hate to see the number of words i have spilled seeking to write something lasting and pure when the most beautiful thing i have ever heard was her saying in a soft whisper i love you

flares

the flares are bright red stars fallen to earth, they send strange prickling sensations across my skin if i look too long, i feel uncomfortable staring it reminds me of when we pulled up to the house as a child and the red and orange flames licked the sky in a sexual way i was […]

ten easy steps

step one find a reason step two actualize that reason step three curl up in a ball and wonder why the reason is so distant from reality, it’s only a few letters off, same page in the dictionary step four cling to that reason step five not too tight, or the reason will suffocate in […]

painted

they painted the apartment buildings now when i look outside it is a different view it feels less like home than the home it hasn’t felt like for so long now i only like a handful of things anymore the rest is just extraneous filler until i can get my mind and heart united but […]

misty

the rain mists gently blanketing the city in a malaise of unfathomable sorrow maybe he is projecting himself out into the aether but it is comforting to think the city weeps with him rather than weeping alone

record

my heart plays like a dusty record worn grooves too deep for the needle to pick up silent stretches in the midst of melody cracks and pops now embedded into the memory of song oh had you heard the once vibrant music play echoing along the corridors of yesterday a symphonic structure so full of […]

sleep

i don’t sleep like a baby no i sleep like a haunted house the restless sleep of spirits wandering of creaking doors of chains rattling long through the night i wake exhausted excited aroused engorged yet so tearfully alone in a queen sized bed made for a fool tangled up in sheets like a hangman’s […]

(un)titled retired dream

i always dreamt of hosting saturday night live the thrill of yelling live from new york it’s saturday night at the opening i would do a funny monologue about what an honor it is to be hosting the show while the band smiles behind me and nods the rapid changes of clothes, my bald head […]

driver’s license

occasionally i look at my driver’s license just to remind myself i am really real i see that bald head and frown thinking maybe he was the dream and i am someone else far from here coincidentally he and i share a birthday but he never gets me a gift

a little man

i had been watching him for days, his beady eyes and think lips always stretched into an angry line on his weak chinned face to say i disliked him is akin to saying pompeii was warm in the year seventy nine, or that water is slightly wet to the touch he smiled and waved to […]