hinged
she screwed her adoration to my back like angel wings unfortunately they turned out to be hinges anchored to the wall now i swing in the wake of her lost affections slamming against the frame of my own remorseless love
Category: poetry
(un)titled thought XLII
was that you i saw passing by the window earlier or just a vision of beauty calling from the back of my mind i can’t tell but i know which one i wish it was
planets
we spend so much money trying to make it to dead planets while we kill the one known living one i wonder are we running towards or away from ourselves
part(i)es
some days i am the life of the search party. others, an uninvited guest. once though. a while back. i was guest of honor at a donner party. everyone agreed i was delicious.
c(u)res
fever dream or street fair, no longer able to tell the differences of real or not vendors with slitted pupils peddling wares of brimstone and lies in multicolored stalls kernels of popped corn heavily seasoned with salty tears and tangled machinations forked tongues spinning yarns made to entice and pull the sullen soul from vacant […]
(un)titled thought XLI
overhead the planes spew smoke in lines like absent fathers mailing presents to forgotten children banners stream behind them cash for gold golden bands forever ever begging goods for service servitude for sanctuary and i wonder am i a mirage in this desert of loneliness or are you the shimmering sands of winter’s discontent still […]
coopered
sinus infection, moral infraction, soul in traction, stuck in redaction i am considering db coopering my life there is a bomb in my briefcase i need two hundred grand in twenties and a sewn shut parachute fly me through the rain towards reno take my clip on tie and watch me soar into the dark […]
sludge
her eyes leak sludge down her withered parchment like cheeks like turkish coffee spilled onto a newspaper the comics sit untouched neither of us feels like laughing
(un)titled thought XL
the moon hangs heavy i stare at it like a picture of a lost lover.
(me)anings
they seek to tell me what to feel to think to write as if it is their words they are not. if they are anyone’s they belong to her my muse. the woman that i write all of this to for in honor of in service to. they circle around my words like crows picking […]
(un)titled loss IV
it only hurts when you remember it yet everything is a reminder so that pretty much sucks
curriculum
i could teach a class on your beauty. give weekly lectures on why i love you. it could be an elective. but since the moment i found you you’ve been the only subject that matters.
(un)titled memory
it was a cold night and the sky was clear as we drove through the winding city streets she leaned across the console and put her head on my shoulder if you had asked me right then i would have told you i wanted that feeling to last until the sun goes supernova and wipes […]
scaffold
he built a scaffold out of the ivory bones of affection used it to scale down to tap the reflection of the moon in the bottom of the sea the coral cut and snagged his suspenders, suspended in the waters, neon pink daydreams of high colonic dismay a diorama menagerie of carefully sculpted plankton beside […]
(un)titled loss III
depression rests it’s silky smooth wings over my cerebellum it slides it’s fangs into the opioid receptors and feasts a feast of famine for a moment brief yet prolonged it feels like the lips of the love you long to kiss so desperately in your dreams come true then a cold oily sense of discontent […]
floated
he floated face down in the pool he said it was practice but he never said what it was practice for but night after night he floated i wonder if he ever got good at it
tick
his head was replaced by a giant tick it did wonders for his personality.
Notches by M. Ennenbach (that’s me!)
So here is the official cover art for my collection of short stories! Coming soon, Notches.
m(i)ddle
this constant looping ending has disrupted the natural flow of my story it has been so long since i can recall a new beginning just spinning around at the end of the middle or the middle of the end i don’t know where i am any longer but how i wish to savor a new […]
(un)titled loss II
my sinus on the right side is in the wrong way today pressure ear canal feels like venice in an earthquake i cannot find my smile have you seen it put it on a carton of milk crooked little thing enjoys dark humor slow walks along a murder scene and the sight of her
(non)linear
it was a nonlinear good bye she said she would talk to me later that was a month ago yet i am still waiting
(roy g biv)
the rain is indigo like the second to last band of the rainbow i can’t stop thinking roy g biv when i see the prismatic band play across the sky redorangeyellow green blueindigoviolet i wish i could see the full spectrum dancing the infrared and ultraviolet instead i see impaired and ultraviolent i can’t help […]
re-read
she re-reads the same poem everyday it makes her want to write a poem herself she doesn’t understand she is a poem and everyday i try and read her but i don’t know the language
r(u)st
at the end of the day a knight in shining armor is just a man that smells of rust if i smelled like rust would you love me
1star
somewhere in the sky a lone star looks down on both of us i whispered a secret to it for your ears only let me know when you hear it
(un)titled thought XXXIX
measure twice cut once works on nearly everything but depression and love
(un)titled thought XXXVIII
could this be a really vivid dream i will wake up none of this is real all of my mistakes didn’t happen i will miss you but it isn’t like you’ll notice i am gone i bet when i wake up i will still love you
punctuated
she is an ! i am an … she is 🙂 while i remain ? we don’t speak in sentences any longer, we speak in hieroglyphics the rosetta stone comes with a search bar and all my inquiries come back 404 twenty six letters have stopped conveying the words necessary to say i love you […]
(un)titled thought XXXVII
have i become a whore to the almighty metaphor afraid to admit this life is not what it was made out to be so i make it what i wish it could be by making it something else completely
then
when i was ten i would spend my summers at the nursing home my mother worked at none are as honest as children and adults close to death many truths were shared at times i was surrounded by ghosts that didn’t know they were dead yet but they always had hard candies and they all […]
dj(i)nn
she told me the lamp was magic, that there was a genie inside that would grant three wishes, i just had to rub it, everything would come true i laughed then after she left, i was alone and that lamp sat on the table, her smell filled the room yes wildflowers yes, i know and […]
s(how)
my parents let the television raise me. we let the phones raise this generation. soon enough it won’t matter. because the planet will be dead. i guess we showed them.
work(s)
i am not a poem worthy sort i am a silk screened image of a car wreck the after photo for depression i am the guy you don’t love just yet willing to write poetry on your skin with my tongue use my teeth for calligraphy tattoo promises of forever in pooled blood just beneath […]
1517
there are bees behind my eyeballs buzzing stinging rats with moth wings bite me as i sleep my blood is poison my venomous pain seeps over broken lips i am tired drained weakened but still strong enough to burn down everything with a lackluster smile
(un)titled need
cold hands grip tightly to the stone lid of the coffin hunger need the moon reflects the rays of a star never seen the steady beat in your lovely throat calls sings the staccato pulse of life pulling from across the room in your dreams i come
listening to love battery by buzzcocks and thinking
sometimes i feel like she wants me to tell her the things she specifically told me not to tell her the first time we spoke the problem i listen too well so i stay quiet just write these odes to her tell her what i feel without either of us acknowledging it it is a […]
(un)titled thought XXXVI
we are all broken so do you wanna super glue yourself together with me
1509
last night i dreamt that the oceans were blood the skies were fire and you were here
slam
she slammed the door with a crack like a sniper’s bullet through the heart each subsequent slamming dealt further into the law of diminishing returns how many times can a heart be shot before it a) kills b) becomes desensitized there is a reason the arm goes numb during a heart attack, i try and […]
ex(or)cist
we switched roles in our love each playing regan macneil or father karras on equal matching motions each with our own demons proudly on display
book
i wish i had you to hold. instead. i have a book. i imagine my fingers would do better. along your spine.
(un)titled ode XXVIII
she dances like sunrise i am the darkened sky for a moment we are neon pink starbursts entangled upon one another for the world to see
eucalyptus
i once had a job filling the condom and tampon dispensers in bathrooms of bars. it was not as glamorous as it sounds. so believe me when i say, i know a thing or two about a thing or two. i am not just a pretty face that writes poetry. and this has nothing to […]
what happens when i try and force a poem but the universe has other ideas
sitting at the park drinking coffee from a paper cup thinking about the pretty girl that asked me to write a poem about her as i stare at the water trying to figure out what i should write about her i had an idea as i grabbed my phone to scribble it down a squirrel […]
starl(i)ght
my happiness is the light of a star by the time you see it it has been dead millions of years
w(i)sps
do you remember the cold october night holding hands as we sang along to pennywise speeding drunkenly down the highway screaming fuck authority like we were kids again how all i wanted was to be your romeo as you were surely my juliet but that juliet had other plans other than a faked death to […]
(un)titled sorrow X
i feel fancy in a vest and bowtie sitting alone wishing it all would end
(un)titled ode XXVII
she is a comet that races through my mind when it is too quiet a blinding blaze that suffuses me with heavenly radiance when it is too loud which it often is she is a comforter draped across my mind to muffle the voices of doubt and shame
drowning in honey
i don’t trust my mouth or words when the feelings of love begin to take over my brain i will find myself standing outside grinning like a fool at the heavy gray clouds a neighbor will wave and i will smile and shout “she wears magic in her smile like a normal person wears shoes […]
(un)titled image IV
i saw her sitting alone on the bench the wind whipping her hair her dress her floppy hat it brought to mind the koi fish fighting for pellets in the pond at the zoo the bodies flopping on one another in gluttonous frenzy mouths sucking at nothing a mindless sort of spasming
waking
i remember waking up and her mumbling she loves me as i crept from bed now i wake up alone but my day doesn’t begin with a lie it is the little things
we(i)ght
thirty pounds ago my shadow seemed more like a balloon twenty pounds ago my pants fit like they should ten pounds ago i began questioning what i was still doing now i just don’t have the money for food but i look good
(un)titled poet
he was a poet right up until he slipped cracked his head on the toilet bowl now he is just another ghost haunting and haunted in equal measure
ends
it might have been the end of the world or the end of the road or the end of the block who can tell when the wildflowers fill your head her voice fills your skull and nothing else matters at all
1day
every tooth in my mouth is a tombstone to every time the words i love you passed over my fool tongue in error one day i will be less of a fool
unnecessary
i have forgotten how to write poetry the words won’t come just flashes of things feathery soft bits of fluff sharp little teeth tearing sinking into brown eyes i have given up on poetry it’s like love unnecessary
bereft
the overcast skies above me her warm flesh beneath it is a dream i know it but i don’t want to wake rejoin this life of empty hope of failing need of loving in vain yet here i sit sickened and bereft
fa(i)thless
it isn’t a biblical life of suffering i live i am more cocaine and unable than hero my lack of faith is a faith in itself so i will cast lots and play the humble poet crucifying myself in an effort to be less of a hassle for you
sunday tanka
woke up tired and mad napped myself into morose if i keep sleeping will i find myself happy or just slip back into mad
microns
she makes me feel like the line between forever and never is as razor thin as the one between lover and over i straddle each with the grace of a drunken monk
(un)titled thought XXXV
i spent so long staring into the night when the sky brightened morning felt like the end of the world
bea(u)tiful funeral
watching her put on make up with the practiced hand of a mortician seems either way it spells death inside my mind a beautiful funeral
ch(u)rch
she laughed at me when i told her she was my fetish she admired my strength my will my glorious anger my limitless sorrow but she never understood my worship of all things her or what it did to me when she snuffed the candle and took her light away so when she called again […]
s(i)mile
it’s cold and wet like a dog’s nose empty like my mother’s eyes so i paint on a smile like a clown pretending it will be okay
consp(i)racy
i collect the dark thoughts like raven feathers as they are born within my mind i nearly have the whole set when i do i will scatter them about my feet like a secondary shadow. then i shall alight upon my new shadow, high above the depths of this hell, and gaze down in hopes […]
(un)titled thought XXXIV
like an idiot i decided to go for a walk in the cold rain it was miserable i was miserable the whole thing was a mistake when it was over i sat staring out the window wishing it showed a different world bound to this cold earth with no tangible means of escape is a […]
(un)titled me
i am not good with titles or life or being open i am howsoever good at falling madly in love and even better at making it all fall apart
m(i)staken
i fear you heard me tell you i love you. what i meant to say was sure has rained a lot lately let me be your umbrella.
(un)titled need
i don’t want you to make love to me like two star crossed lovers i want you to take me as if i was the only drink of water in an ocean of sand
not much
i don’t have much but i can compare you to the sunrise breaking over the eastern seas or always tell you that you are my favorite shade of anything yet nothing is comparable to you my love
(non)sens(i)cal
she reminded me of a penguin on an escalator i have no idea where that was going but now you can see the penguin on the escalator as well and that is what she reminded me of
(un)titled image III
she was the prettiest girl in her little town she had the world by the balls now she is angry and chain smokes while the same world passes her by sometimes she clenches her fist just to remember the feel
(un)titled ode XXVI
she is the ocean i am the shore she washes over me i lose the jagged pieces they break off and sink into her depths in losing those bits we both become whole
“King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Bone”
manic mike’s hurting cluster bombs in my brain stem the acoustic sounds of my favorite aussies all that seems to soothe my head (sorry frenzal rhomb and the living end)
(un)requited II
did you notice how i couldn’t meet your eyes without blushing or how my voice catches when you say my name no probably not you do not know the way i feel and if you did you would spare my feelings and ignore it
man(i)c
the best part about being mentally unstable is the manic episodes the rest pretty much blows but when you can harness it it isn’t so bad
br(i)nk
outside the window in the cool autumn rain they seem to stand just on the other side of tempered glass revving the engines of the unnecessary lawn implements just pulling the throttle in the living room six fans dehumidifier roar like a swarm of angry locusts in a holding pattern my own personal white noise […]
mov(i)e
if this is the movie of my life i hope a plucky young starlet shows up soon and teaches me the meaning of christmas or that the power was inside me the entire time not quite ready for the credits just yet
(un)titled thought XXXIII
this one is scribbled as i prepare coffee for the morning the coffee seems very necessary not sure about this though it will be nice to wake to the caffeinated brown these words maybe sometimes what doesn’t make sense at midnight comes clear at midday
call
hark/ the ravens call/ yet still/ i sleep did they/ truly/ call/ at all ?
(un)titled if
if i ever make it big i am getting a pet llama i say pet but we will really be pals i am going to name him aloysious lleonard ennenbach the third
(un)titled ode XXV
i would be the ring upon your finger the gems around your neck for you are the words within my skull the beating of my heart alas fair lass nature made you dazzling without my feeble touch and made me quite lesser without yours
(un)titled thought XXXII
i am just about done. if i am quiet i apologise. but i cannot do this parody any more.
(un)titled bottom
as it falls apart i thought how much worse can it get that is when the hot water heater tank cracked open
(un)titled thought XXXI
she told me it would get better someday we both know she lies but i appreciate it all the same
abandon
my poem about men being monsters and women laying eggs got me a seven day ban on facebook i saw that and wondered why the day would begin this way then i got an email from my daughter an email i wondered ah they shut my phone off again depression loves little itching my negative […]
j(u)st one
one hello can be worth a dozen goodbyes but one goodbye may be something you never recover from
arduous
talking can be as arduous as watching a tortoise eat a head of lettuce the pace will drive me insane frivolity in exchange of sincerity i would much rather kiss your neck or nibble your collar bone
(un)titled sorrow IX
when i found her i gave up a part of me unfortunately she never gave me a part of her back so i just lost something valuable and gained a measure of sorrow
(un)titled ode XXIV
there is a beauty in the wretched. in the damned. and there is a beauty in you my love. that i will never fully grasp in these sloppy odes.
postmark IV
i sent a letter to my father today. wrote it on the back of a pack of marlboros and placed it in an empty can of beer. just a note of thanks. i have given time and space a lot of thought. i scribbled carefully, john ennenbach father streator illinois two thousand and three. i […]
cr(i)minal
the question he begged the court to answer was simple all of his crimes were self inflicted he was the victim by his own hand so clearly death was only fair the jury of his fears watched solemnly from the mirror no hint on their similar faces
(spring)
spring is the soul of a child the world around awakens to a sense of immortality
(un)titled sorrow VIII
it weighs heavily today a stone wheel slowly grinding me from man to meat from flesh to failing sitting in my skull tap tapping away the many flaws from cracks to crevices bending hope to hopeless obliterates as it alliterates casting dream to dreary i soak in the piss warm waters of wavering wistful wants […]
jumble
tired of being cold alone trapped in this cycle of desire and painfully throbbing desire incapable of finding the secret combination of letters to unlock the puzzle conundrum riddle here is what i have found so far eppvhoialssne the hint says two words without meaning to the poet illiterate
postmark III
i sent a letter to hunter, postmarked today. i folded it up and put it in a pack of dunhills. just a note of thanks. i have given up on bending time and space. but i hope he gets it. i carefully typed on the label hunter s thompson father of gonzo snowy owl creek […]
(un)titled ode XXIII
she is that small window from june 20th to june 21st when spring transitions to summer is there any wonder that the world adores her so
tr(u)ths
when i am dead and long forgotten certain truths will remain i loved (though she never knew it) i lived (though it wasn’t with her) i cried (for the longing i feel for her) and this singular moment right here we shared you and i maybe not at the exact same time but it was […]
(un)titled ode XXII
the world is a treadmill i run and run yet no matter how fast my legs pump how hard my shoes slap the earth beneath i cannot escape how much my every heart beat beats for you
old fri(end)s
she asked me if i fear death i smiled no i said i do it a little every day we are old friends
Mike's Manic Word Depot 