all of the cars sitting still on the freeway, unaware of the irony, the idiocy of being able to go anywhere and being stuck in place freedom isn’t free, it is just another set of shackles weighing you down nine to five hell to have four hours to run like crazy in order to have […]
there is a scratching right outside my door grating across the wooden frame as i drift to sleep i hear it growing louder frantic desperate i lay still holding my breath hoping it goes away hoping it is a dream fantasy over active imagination it’s happened three nights in a row this constant noise this […]
another empty refrain another ode to need more words draped across her shoulders to shelter her from the manic dystopia that is life a thousand or more attempts at explaining the inexplicable the perfect convergence of beauty brilliance and breath taking wonder that she should see every single time she passes a reflective surface another […]
he is curled up in a ball he knows what is coming but he always imagines it is going to be different this time this time it is going to be a clown making balloon animals it is going to be acrobats twirling by their teeth twenty feet in the air he will go to […]
when i look into the mirror i only see the missing pieces i begin to ponder which side of the mirror i am on can you see the blank spots the voids where being real should exist the delineation from human to pretend
mismatched socks are the only certainty in a universe of chaos happiness, love, desire; nebulous and unsure but wash a load of laundry and see if every sock shows up again i don’t even bother any more in any of it let my misery dress me in one ankle sock colored gray, one dress sock […]
i lay here staring at the ceiling dandelion fluff coats my head the dull ache behind my eyes rancid reminders of the before when will it end my mind pleads the clock strikes thirteen again i draw the anchor from the violet waters, careful of cascading memories, the serpentine river carries wilted lilies to the […]
i stapled her picture to my chest in a fit of desperation, carved her name across my brain in the hope she would get caught up in her own wonder and give me a moment of peace, her presence talking over in totality it didn’t help, nothing works, the exorcist fled to find her, leaving […]
the sky looks how my heart feels, a rainy malaise darkening the dreary day no hint of sunshine, all light hidden away, a sepulchre cloth draped over the land candle lights sways in the morbidity of mourning, casting dancing ghouls i hear the ravens over head, skulking in the trees, watching for weakness to feast […]
Listen to Like poetry.m4a by MEnnenbach #np on #SoundCloud
i pursue the unattainable, the barely imaginable, the stuff of legends, dreams, fables i pursue you with open heart and lack of hope no settling for less than the love that would make the dead weep, the heavens thunder, the ground spring to life beneath our step you deserve nothing short of everything, the world […]
i would make love to you like words down upon the vellum, begin with frantic scratchings of the quill, but finding the circadian rhythm of the lines you deserve to be ravaged like poetry from the lips of the classics, taken like the modern greats, expounded like the epics of the formative firsts imagine these […]
i feel like i am falling farther and farther from okay, anxiety keeps building, tension is mounting to unbearable levels things are getting better then why oh why am i getting worse the thick make up, fresh coating of paint, does nothing to seal the cracks in the facade, to half the inexplicable fall into […]
wretched rejection of rancid affection, the regression of oppression, a lesson in lesions, depression is draped over shoulders sore from steady sobbing, robbing the day of light, a blank slate, work down by the elemental discourse of disconnected disease deemed dire and dreary the light filters through yon fog to signal false hope springing infernal, […]
the fabric of the universe slowly comes apart, i sit cross legged on the bare soil, plucking threads at random whispers of chaos meander into the aether how many times have i cast destruction with idle hands and worried mind no more craftsman than toddler with a sledgehammer, destroying every edifice my angry heart can […]
i savored the flavor of your every kiss, saved them in a jar for later rainy days reminiscing when the day came, the one i feared more than any other, one draped in signage of coming soon this jar of cast away affection was all i had to fill me, emptiness became the new fuflillment […]
the revolution will not be televised it will be monetized it will be commercialized we are past the point in terrestrial diversions, excursions, retractions and distractions when the actual revolution occurs we’ll be busy chasing our tails and missing the broad strokes almost as if it doesn’t concern us at all the revolution is a […]
the first time i saw her the very first time a myriad of things ran through my mind the world slowed it was one of those rare moments the kind you remember the rest of your life a distinction level event an extinction level event because who i was prior to seeing her was forgotten […]
i saw it climb clumsily up onto the dock at first i thought it must be a man out for a midnight swim then the clouds parted i saw the tentacles coming from where his mouth should have been i stifled a scream it shambled down the planks i forced myself to be smaller to […]
soon i will have a raven etched into my arm, a symbol with deep meaning, facetted from different real of my world an homage to poe, the one that taught me the power of words, without who i would have never set down this path a metaphor for depression, without which i would not have […]
the walls of the prison looked out over the raging seas, spotlights cast their beams like the roving eyes of angry giants, rusted spikes looped with razor wire like tinsel hung with malicious intent a small boat rocks haphazardly on the waves, a shadow on the obsidian waves, the huddled form in a long black […]
slowly but surely the inexplicable journey from cradle to grave no proof of prior deviance, but deviant abhorrent behavior seems commonplace common scents beguile common sense skin stretched taut like a balloon at the edge of rupture, a lone soul in need of rapture, a free spirit seeking capture, blurry no matter the aperature not […]
crawling along the broken glass trail of hearts you’ve left in your wake determined to add mine to the rest of the offerings don’t worry i’ll be quiet, keep the sobbing to a minimum, try not to disturb your rest sleep on angel, i will show myself out
the maladroit fool spinning yarn into nooses incapable of weaving a heart from silk the threads of whimsy seem coarse to the uninitiated sorrow tinges every thing with tar poor maladroit fool with his gnarled fingers like hooks incapable of finding the correct pattern to her heart
feel like i don’t write poetry, just scribble in the margins of your masterpieces, unable to capture the same lightning in a bottle toy exude effortlessly everyone can see me as the fraud i am, the fool playing at poet, sloppily painting in the stencils you lay on the page my emotional tantrums are ripples […]
she is goddess she is mother she is sinner she is saint this is her day the fixer the cleaner the comfort the queen she is everything taken for granted worshipped from afar under paid never shown enough of her own worth she keeps all the plates spinning brings calm to the chaos gives in […]
i began this life flying high above the clouds my fingertips trailed in the coldness of space every scar and sorrow a weight upon my soul drawing me closer closer closer to the earth now the skies are a distant memory the clouds on which i rested my head replaced by rock but still i […]
half asleep, body sinking into the sheets, phantom need fills the dark room visions of my lips close to your ear, singing along softly as you fill the hollow that consumes me i am the tide, your lunar pull controls me, your celestial body filling me with desire if i told you to write your […]
all the colors turned to gray as she walked out the door she took my world made it monochromatic with the simple act of leaving where once were purples and blues greens and neon pink black and white runs down the walls like rain colors blur like wisps at the edge of my vision flashes […]
i want to kiss you until your lips hurt are chapped painful but neither of us wants to stop coppery kisses long into the night
mark sang about making love to a beautiful girl and feeling alive i just want to hold one i feel like an untempered pane of glass in a hurricane buffeted by the winds and nature until i am contorted to tensile extremes at the edge of shattering any subtle shift in pressure and i will […]
he knew the land like the back of his hand his people had hunted here for generations the full moon illuminated the night with pale white light he saw the buck made sure to stay downwind slowly he crept through the trees making no sound something alerted the deer’s preternatural sense it looked right at […]
raw feeling nerves exposed feeling every piece of grit blown across the barren plain nothing makes sense nothing is right
drifting off into nothing be my tether keep me here it’s dark i’m afraid to travel the dark alone i just need a reason not to drift away the world feels off
Tonight at 930CST. Gonna chat about the book. And probably other stuff. Maybe how many live goldfish I can fit in my mouth. But probably not. Anyhoo, thought I’d share. I’ve got a headache and miss your face. Hugs and kisses love me
sitting across from the train station in downtown dallas watching people make their way down chilly, dirty streets even the pigeons circling above seem to have had enough of this trash blows down the road, decorating the wasteland of miserable robots going about their dreary existence i am with the alley cats, staring down my […]
he sits head in hands as the tribulations of another day spent in the too hot, too cold embrace of depression how do you continue to walk among the living knowing that all you have is rot inside how do you continue this facade of being part of society when that same society is as […]
hands on the wheel steadily steering off into the desolate land of plastic and steel dissonance the urge to jam down the pedal, careen off of as many of these bastards as possible direct this projectile to the heart of numbness bumper cars for the urban sports enthusiast euthanizing the carbon spewing monsters with deadly […]
curious curious, the lights in the sky, blinking a message across the vast eons worrisome worrisome, specks of colorful dye, polluting all of the waters abysmal deep in the shadows, beyond mortal recollection, lurking in the lost moments of time softly padding footsteps, across a desert of glass, what tremulous terrors at dusk hide serious […]
the goddamned neighbor’s dog is yipping and clawing at the door because i made the mistake of taking out the garbage and alerting it to the presence of life outside it’s domain the lady down the hall called me meester mike and handed me a plate of tamales ever since i fell from a tree […]
trapped security guard is giving me the evil eye the work issued phone doesn’t work no ability to call for confirmation perpetually early means no proof of who i am i would laugh if it wasn’t all so situation now fucked up like always things will get better or so the ones not at the […]
did i dream of wildflowers spread across the silken sheets, of tangled limbs, fevered oaths of forever or beady eyed stares, evil intents, dastardly desires hidden in the shadows beneath the barely standing bed creaking springs and terrible things or lustful yearnings with tantalizing need it all blends together six of one means half a […]
ayahuasca spirit animal, sheep in wolves clothing sweating the tar of sinuous desire, spiralling inward, ever faster, the eye of the whirlpool, vaginal security blankets dot the landscape, dreaming of wolves, shaking in tumultuous rancor someone drew a penis on the back of the last boat to freedom in the caked on muck of inner […]
i have been to hundreds of concerts, seen thousands of bands, listened to years worth of albums but the sound of your heart, with my ear pressed to your chest, your scent in my nose, your skin beneath my fingers it is a soothing symphony to my battered being, a balm across my broken soul, […]
i can’t shake this feeling of cold, shivering, sitting on the couch staring at the cloudy sit outside lost in swirling gray i never told you that i love you, but you knew it, like the cold outside, it was impossible to ignore sparrows huddle on the edge of the roof, miserable looking fluffs of […]
she only ever entered through the window, in the dark of night, never through a doorway where she could be seen, stopped by if it was convenient to her needs, not altruistic, though she wore the guise well, he didn’t see through the veil, unwilling or just foolish enough to believe the fog was normal […]
true to their word, the dwarves let me go unharmed at the edge of their kingdom. nude. hands bound behind my back. and they were even sweet enough to dump a bucket of pheromones on me as i left. i ran screaming as every able bodied howler monkey chased after me with a gleam of […]
new job neurosis anxiety kicking in full effect forced sleep deprivation to fall into a coma last night woke up tired and afraid pacing retracing every mistake that led to this place failure failure just a bucket of guts picking up the pieces of the mirror so willfully shattered been trapped so long in shards […]
i can’t tell if it was all a lie you fed, i wanted to believe so badly or an illusion i created myself, with no footing in the real world i don’t know which hurts worse if it turns out to be true but it is one or the other and i am giving up […]
no one loves as hard as one in the cusp of losing it all maybe one who has nothing left comes close new love burns like a comet tracing through the cosmos, unaware the brighter it burns, the faster it melts but love on it’s last legs is inversely proportionate, the one who cannot let […]
heavy scented floral arraignments, the noose falls on the jury, hung in my jaw, with the rest of the judgemental emotions not able to pass is it warranted, these false warrants issued for issues of despondency handcuff me to the headboard, lock me up, knowing your heart is the key, weigh me down with stones […]
I don’t want to be pinched. I want five more minutes to live this dream. It’s real and it’s here and I am sitting with tears streaming down my cheeks staring at it. The only thing missing is my dad getting to make fun of me for it.
it wasn’t a shatter, it was just a gradual cracking that began innocuously no dramatic explosion into shards one day it fell apart you would expect pomp and circumstance, and all that you got was a fizzle just an innocuous crack, not even sure you were the cause, it may have happened years before extraneous […]
six months ago i wrote this one, always loved it. wanted to share it again – me she wore an ankle length kimono as she walked barefoot through the lush grass of her yard, porcelain beauty in lunar rays broken by cloud the silky robe is adorned with a phoenix bursting forth from ash into […]
So today is the day I became an official author. I’m excited and slightly frightened beyond words. But the first review is up on Amazon. Notches: A Collection https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950259102/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_n6WECbT3DEB1P
i leave footprints burnt in the ground behind me my eyes are slitted like a goat i’ll take your heart then i’ll take your soul leave nothing but brimstone when i go your every wish is my desire my desire your every dream take my hand, love don’t be worried i’ll show you pleasures you’ve […]
sleepless nights return tossing and turning again wishing for some peace none to be found here alone without your body near me
she and i were running through a field. the flowers in bloom and pollen filled the air like faery dust. i could feel the pollen attacking my lungs and filling my head with fuzz. she ran on, unknowing or uncaring at my slowing steps. i sank to my knees, wanting to call out but not […]
in the ever connected state of disconnected turbulent nonsense to be able to connect really connect find another pulsating on the same wavelength of pain, across a sea of electronic blips, encoded in nigh sentient ones and zeros should be impossible to view another’s soul through the vacant wash of digitality, syphoning their love, their […]
i have a friend, very far away, she suffered for being herself, it was unfair, and i love her so she is wonderful, brilliant, and trying to make it every day, she shines like a diamond, a star in the sky i have another friend, also far away, she suffered tyranny from outside, it was […]
i wonder if i read aloud if the words can reach you if the issue is the writing not the expressing cock your ear to the wind my love while i gently murmur my feelings on the breeze can you hear them the softly whispered words of love and devotion curated for you alone can […]
she tried to teach me how to play chess i didn’t have the attention span to learn the finer rules as i tried and failed i realized i would always be the pawn taken by the queen no matter how i tried to be the knight she never saw me as the king worthy of […]
when she_____is hurting all i long to do is make it better but it is out of my hands so instead i think but wish to do more
she sat in the aisle seat two rows ahead of me i saw her board my heart stopped i sat breathless unmoving as she innocently shined her smile across the train car i never wanted to take the train planes get you there fast but i needed the break i knew the next eight hours […]
she was the last plum hanging before the first frost of winter the sweetest fruit nearly forgotten to wither on the branch he was starving barely staying upright fumbling down the road wobbly knees with distended belly she saw him quivered on her branch just enough to land gently on the grass beside his feet […]
is there anything as lonely as a washing machine with no laundry a gaping maw waiting for sustenance, to perform the one function it has i like to drop quarters into them when the laundromat is empty and they are all alone let them slosh about with furious need, bereft of anything but purpose i […]
Notches: A Collection https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950259102/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_RjmECbBJYCHS2 Prefer the feel of a book in your hand? Now you can have Notches in physical form! Tell your friends. Ask your library to stock it. And remember to leave a review. They are super important and increase the range a first time author can reach.
it was cold, bitterly so as the wind cut through my shirt i slipped on my jacket to check the mail normally i avoid the mirror, an aversion to seeing the puppy dog eyes staring back at me, a reminder of how long since those lips were kissed, the beard not covering enough of the […]
manic under a magenta moon, the stars in the sky aren’t familiar, can’t get my bearings, baring myself to an alien moon, spilling all of my secrets to another dimension, out of synch she tracks sand into the house, perfect footprints from the back door through the kitchen, the ball of her foot and heel […]
the time it took me to realize time was exactly what i needed was found too late if patience is a strong point add another weakness to my fractured list of failings so i elected to man the unmanned ship to be the test subject, the crash test dummy, the petri dish, colonized by a […]
my mind is racing but there is no cohesion to the thoughts like a lightning round of idiocy and insecurities bouncing from disparate to desperate and all points between salivate retaliate procrastination salvation a fine line from confusion to disillusion with a healthy dose of defenestration seven happy heartaches eight offending offers nine and ten […]
two days in a haze a black cloud of perpetual illness sorrow blanketed me nothing shook the desolation then last night thinking this could be my last i fought against the pull i opened my eyes to find her floating above me claws in my mind fangs dripping poison onto my lips the succubus had […]
so lost without you, i was so lost in you, now all is lost and i don’t know how to find my way, i tried leaving a trail of breadcrumbs but the raven got fat the farther from home i went now i just need to sit a spell, cast a spell, spell your name […]
she set a jar beneath her pillow said it would catch her dreams for a rainy day i held a jar beneath her cheeks in which to catch her fallen tears in hopes of finding a cure we placed a jar beneath our bed to catch the passion as it flowed from our writhing bodies […]
of all the hearts offered, the only one i wanted, was one i could never have that is how it works in my world reading declarations of love from the mouth i long to kiss knowing they will never be aimed at me dreaming of things that will never be yet still when i close […]
recalcitrant sorrow, sorry, pleading for relief, begging for forgiveness, crawling on knees leaving awkward steps across the despoiled fabric of ever lasting she owned his heart, his soul, the lone queen in a crown of razors on a throne of broken dreams bloody tears trail down tanned skin, crimson trails of torturous misgivings, her thick […]
i would give anything to feel something other than nothing numb how i dream of you waking alone to an overwhelming sense numb from the moment you grew silent took your gaze away everything went numb i would give anything to feel anything but numb
everytime you turn away i carve another piece of myself in a flaccid attempt at recalling your divine attention it began with occam’s razor down my wrist, the simplest solution seemed likely the best you removed your shoes and stomped the grapes of my wrath into a delicate whine, fermented in casks of anonymity, better […]
whisper to me your sweetest lies, make me feel as if it is real, your hot breath sending chills down my spine as you say all the things i wish were true then fade away like the morning dew, no sign you ever existed, just fade away, a phantom hibiscus, to pollenate another dream, germinate […]
it is strange sometimes i see my words in other places, fall from other lips, inked from someone else’s pen is it the butterfly effect i get a heady sense of deja vu, confusion, discomfort am i the illusionary one, not quite here or were they touched by the same illness that courses through me […]
it was the sillohuette of a raven perched just outside my bedroom window i could feel the beady eyes, intelligent, far more so than any animal has the right to be, staring, judging through the dusty pane of glass my arms were behind my head under the pillow light flickered and danced across the ceiling […]
reticent the farther the fallen drift, the more romantic the words sound as they float back from the edge of reticent meanderings all of the stupid things done in vain, they seem so quaint in rose quartz stasis hell is reaching out nothing but the void responds heaven is curling up the void wrapping itself […]
strip remove your modern trappings allow me to feast upon your hidden spoils take it all off stand before me proudly displaying all your scars let me run my fingers across every inch of you plumb your depths drink in all of your wonder just strip it bare give it all to me every bit […]
it isn’t the re-entry that burned me to a crisp, it wasn’t the sudden in flux of atmosphere, the re-inflation of lungs with combustible gas it was her floating in a capsule with artificial gravity, pills to recreate emotional discourse, freeze dried remains, frozen scenes, moments of loss, trivial words that fell from their sockets […]
fear eight legs in the darkness, the hint of venom on tiny fangs, the ridges of vertebrae in curved repose what moves in the shadows under the bed, in the closet, beneath the sheets the icy hand grips, chokes, gently caressing exposed flesh fear is all in the mind but mindless terror delves deep from […]
predictive it was a pleasure to meet you and your family are in my thoughts on the matter i’m not sure if you got my last message it was the same as the other one of those things where you are going to have the same number of people who are interested in the middle […]
trepidation swimming through oceans of ashes, watch for sharks, watch for red eyes in the shadows they shut my power off again jackals in the underbrush, lions in the trees, fish flopping on rain clouds as falcons drown beneath ice recharge the static between bare feet and hand reaching for the door knob shuffling slowly […]
parenthetical fireworks flare crescent moons burst into acidic tears that shower down upon the open mouthed faces of all who witness the destruction of all they knew to be real the pachyderms strike against the rusted cogs of the machinery, bow ties etched with keroscenic vistas, tremulous eruptions of soot fill open spaces between hypothetical, […]
chestnut mare, runs like the wind, mane and tail go flying what do you dream open plains, barley and hay, golden oats that stretch for miles when i was a child they had to put a horse down, it screamed and thrashed in the dusty hay of the freshly mucked stall, the screams echoed into […]
the steady clop of hooves across the uneven cobblestone streets, echoing through the morning as the sun burns away mist a vision astride a white stallion, draped demurely only in long golden hair, led by a stern figure in black with her eyes cast down godiva, godiva, the wife of the lord, riding nude through […]
her ability as an escape artist the falling chains picked lock broken hairpin empty safe pulled up from the lake vanishing in a puff of smoke like a ninja no sign she ever existed except for the faintest hint of wildflowers floating faintly above the messy bed she was exactly what you wanted her to […]
the sounds of dueling accordians rumble through the walls against all odds like a massacre at a polka championship, blood and lederhosen sprays the walls spilled flagons of dark ale stain the carpet, threabare from rolling out too many barrels the prussians are coming, death glinting in their inebriated eyes, they come for me next
then there was nothing i could hear my heart wheezing as it forced sludge in repetition through corroded vascular nonsense it went quiet the lights went out the room went empty again nothing fills four walls of hell the steady drip of sorrow onto bare chested regret they are gone the rest is meaningless there […]
i was still caught up in the beginning as she was sketching the grand farewell it became hard to enjoy the small things when they were all blown out of proportion it was a thousand tiny deaths, a game of self mutilation, where the rules were arbitrary at best she called it love i called […]
some people crave attention to keep the demons at bay, company to quiet the voices inside their heads, drown the sorrows me i just scribble them down, give them free reign, let them scream, gnash at the carpet, smear their filth on the walls depression frolics, prances about, rearing it’s ugly head and mugging for […]
i have come to a conclusion this voyage of loneliness, the futile search for someone to share this life of misery with is illusionary the she i have spent far too long looking for is an intangible thing like trying to catch sand with a net, no matter how tightly woven, the particulates are always […]
Mike's Manic Word Depot 