end of recording

serial, milk and cereal, venereal, bumps and festering sores, soars, flying above, a dove, piece amongst all mankind, the succulent and the trucculent, the redundant ex-pundit, reluctantly repugnant and created to obey crass, immature, more machine than man, cyborg, half breed, centurian centaur, the workhorse and the buried burro singing gregarious gregorian chants, chance, luck […]

heat

she moaned and shook on the bed of flames, lost in orgasmic shudders in the overwhelming heat, her flicking fingers fanning the fires of her ultimate desires in full fire retardant suit i watch and wish I could fall into the fire myself but this is hers, the blue flames flowing in waves off of […]

death defying heretic

i felt the heat before i saw the flame, the sweat evaporating off my skin before it had time to bead up heard the whistle of the blade before i saw the flash of steel, coming for my throat in a deadly arc smelled the ozone before i heard the crackle, the purplish after image […]

still hate poems as lists

1) i realized i am probably afraid of emotional attachment see every woman i’ve ever loved tossed me away except for one but she did everything but toss me away and then screamed when the lack of anything became too much of something and i left 2) don’t much care for heights anymore not that […]

anarchist’s cookout

anarchistic delinquent lack of caffeinated motivation to light shit on fire i want to stir the pot but lack the ambition today it is the deviant in me screaming for release from this procrastinating prison need a partner in crime an associate in misadventure someone to kickstart the engine and get the bad times rolling […]

she knows

she is my cleopatra the queen of denial, the lily of my mind’s eye i would erect the pyramids for her to give her shade, reroute the river water for her to bathe break my back to make her dreams come true i think she knows it she is my marie antoinette my luscious croissant […]

hate poems as lists

1 depression is like clinging to nothing 2 falling into the void with willing abandon, swimming in the cold comfort of her vacant 3 her eyes on me from across the room, burning into me, pulling me into her orbit where i am hopeless, only able to gaze in adoration before feeling the flames of […]

thirteen

when i was born it took three nurses to get the doctor to stop hitting me it wasn’t until they sprinkled holy water on me that i started to cry a bellowing roar that shook the entire hospital my mother’s soul died on the delivery table they called it at thirteen hundred hours and thirteen […]

didn’t say a word

remember when i said i love you the words spilled across the silence of the room and just hung there the stillness of it all you looked like a deer in headlights and I could see you seeking any exit any path away from those three little daggers aimed at your heart shot with the […]

haiku of sadness

it is summer here yet it is winter in me the seasons at war my mind in turmoil sad for no reason at all help quiet the noise just filled with aching broken by the gears of life just fucking stop it the whispering screams seductive as it calls out leaving only tears

stratum

farewell to the darkness resting in my mind to the writhing agony that pervades every movement to the things i dreamt of in the quiet moments the echos of more subsonic insubstantial simperings subtly vanishing into the shadows a flash of light a cloud of smoke drift into the reflection of future incomprehension the lone […]

one last (re)quest

i was barefoot walking through a garden of carnivorous plants their pollen was intoxicating and i barely felt the stinging bites as they slowly consumed me piles of sun bleached bones barely a tendon withered and dried remained on i traverse inexorably drawn deeper in until the sun is blocked by the canopy of leaves […]

depression tanka

twice damn you sorrow depression holds my black heart squeezing like a hug taking all that is happy and filling it with sweet doubt curse you for this pain bottomless flows of sadness damn you bitterness leave me alone for one day find a new joy to smother i already know the depths of your […]

i’m flotsam, she’s the ocean

she’s got a hold of me this morning anxiety the bottom rung of depression pouring in through cracks in the dam so hastily assembled like the little boy with his finger in the dike and just as imaginary as flawlessly recreated and flawed to fail spectacularly as the feeling of dread washes over me uncertainty […]

farewell, i fade away

what is it that you saw when you stared into my eyes was it hope or forever or just another lie i feel like an empty package just barely making it by beaten up in transit discarded like an ode to pomp and style how i wanted it to be you just you and how […]

paradise by immolation

got a head of bad ideas and a heart of broken promises spread the kerosene across the floor strike a match take my hand and let’s spin until the fumes makes us dizzy dance as the timbers collapse around us i’ll catch an ember on my finger tip like a firefly you look beautiful with […]

on sparrow wings

sparrows filled the air around us she stared at them in awe i stared at her in sorrow she caught my glance and raised an eyebrow in confusion i warned her not to fall in love with me it would only lead to pain and as she realized the truth of my words, the sky […]

myopic tripwires

i only eat monsanto, smoke eight packs a day, speed through school zones drunk, and am a master of barely restrained circle pit line dancing heel to your throat, do-si-do this mother fucker, i will allemande left hook you in the kisser i left many a partner swinging from the old cherry tree, spinning from […]

nude

in an effort to be more transparent, i have stripped my skin off bare musculature and suddenly external organs impossible to hide when you leave a trail of blood everywhere you go exposed nerve endings and alabaster skeleton, the ultimate in showing off the real you i have nothing left to hide, in fact i […]

scientifically

the light entered my cornea, refracted and hitting my iris like a laser it passed through the vitreous, the gel that maintains the shape and supports my retina there is was changed into an electrical surge and raced down my optic nerve my brain interpreted the signals and an image formed, this all happened in […]

for sale or rent

i bet your lips taste like summertime your embrace feels like coming home i sit up and imagine how your lips would feel on my clavicle, your teeth on my skin it’s all i can do to not call you not beg for the chance to be yours and yours alone pent up, messed up, […]

she as a metaphor

it is just another one of those she is a metaphor for love things another contrite deluge of longing in metaphor and is given the form of her who is she she is the shadow of jayne mansfield behind a silk curtain the promise of dangerous curves her voice is sultry crackle of tobacco on […]

gorrila killa and lonesome singing

today’s drive was about you my unaware of my existence love masked intruder’s most beautiful girl in the world sums you up to a t it says all the things i would say to you if i could whisper in your ear who am i kidding i would sing it to you in the car […]

pot of indifference

hope is a coffee filter you fill it with burnt offering cascade tears and suckle the tainted leavings you get a facsimile of what you wanted a participation trophy a jolt of caffeinated misdirection i watch this guy sit on the starts and talk in his phone every night if he didn’t want an audience […]

doesn’t matter to me either

and i just stood in the shower the water washing the sweat and dirt from my tired body my head against the cool tile of the wall bah doesn’t matter to the kittens stalking prey in the talk grass outside doesn’t matter to me either my mind near shutting off as the streams bombarded my […]

a flower a ship a forsaken

a lone flower in the heavy summer air it’s head droops low towards the ground too much for the stem to maintain a lone ship deep beneath the surface of the raging sea it’s bow broken and settled into the silt too much water for the holds to maintain a lone man at the edge […]

intergalactic flight recorder

full speed into the wall head first, no helmet, on repeat for the last six months, no longer an accident but more a designed failure, seeking traction on treacherous terrain, loss of direction, affection and inspiration, wheels spinning, feet slipping, gravel spitting, driven insane, lungs burning, muscles torn, palpitations and vision blurred, speeding well past […]

work

lost in these ever changing mazes of chain link fences and angry men in hard hats showers of sparks and spent water bottles like a bread crumbs left by pollutant little children it’s already too hot sweat dripping from the twenty minute walk from rental car to machine humidity and stagnant air make it all […]

blood type

i don’t know my blood type if something happened and i needed that knowledge for a transfusion i would say she is my blood type, she is the fluid flowing through my veins, my vanity, she is my type, she is the current that shifts, as she grows near it rises, races, pumps a million […]

hard to complain

she came into the room wearing nothing but a bloodstained apron and a smile her eyes gleaming with passion i could nothing but stare at her in love and appreciation ready i can only nod not daring to speak to break the moment she smiles sadly a hint of bittersweet to the pure sugar of […]

arachnophilia

i’ve got spiders nesting under my skin for christsakes they crawl and bite and scramble up and down inside my arms laying eggs in my veins oxygen depleted blood cells rush them back into my heart and lungs a vast network of the damned things slowly taking over my meat like it is a series […]

under the yellow lights

he stood smoking lighting one off the smoldering butt of the last yellow stained fingers rasping cough looking at the street lights but not seeing them wine stains on the front of his wrinkled shirt he is wobbly absently tapping his fingers on his pocket staring into the lights he doesn’t see she died two […]

constriction

her hands, so small and delicate, the immaculately sculpted nails painted a mirror black those hands wrapped around my throat, the nails digging into my flesh, half moons of blood running down my chest she rides me like a bucking bronco, far outlasting the eight seconds, her eyes closed, face upturned to the ceiling small […]

belabored day

where troubles melt like lemon drops high above the chimney tops, that’s where you’ll find me clenched up in a ball ice picks behind my eyes tears streaming freely down my cheeks somewhere under the pavement that’s where they’ll eventually find me the left over bits of nothingness that once made up a man trash […]

stage left

a maelstrom, a whirling dervish, a mannequin on stilts in the rain a nonexistent knot, gordian, cut in twain like a child in a biblical tale if i brighten whiten dye and pluck will someone see me for me or will i just fall into the pack of lemurs unaware of where we run but […]

beautiful

beautiful the face looking back blushes laugh lines crinkle as the word takes full effect a shy smile half forms as she looks at me in the mirror apply the mascara, make it dark, make those eyes pop an angel looks back, cocky smirk on her full lips she is perfection like she was sculpted […]

full circle

mint flavored ridicule and almond smelling kisses the steady iv drip of saline solutions and serendipitous rainbows comatose copulations and salutations rinse the stained sheets of teenage secretions wet dreams at the dry cleaners milk shakes and ipecac soda fountains focus on your focus to weed out the weakness of rabid earthworms and tentacled terrors […]

willingly

willingly of my own volition i raise the dagger and plunge it into my own chest sacrificing of myself giving this unholy torment scraping my own hands across the jagged broken pieces of my mind heart soul to the four winds i cry out the waters above and below separated by the twisted hands of […]

my juliet

my juliet, she hit the panic button, and then she ran away all the stories, the ones that seemed made up, became all too real that day she looked me in the eye, and said she’s sorry, but she doesn’t feel the same way she sat me down on the couch, with teary eyes, and […]

worming around

under this damnedable hotel, beneath the cheap sheets, beneath the mattress and carpet and floor and pipes and conduit and cheap laminate and under the basement under all of this man made monstrosity dedicated to commerce and making men and women feel like they are in a miniature uncomfortable home for homeless souls worms crawl […]

937

‘i love you‘ he uttered the words to the empty sky they floated on the wind eventually he could no longer tell where they went swirling on the geothermic swells he’s made a ritual of doing this every morning a cup of coffee and a good book sitting on the hillside bench and watching the […]

fugue state

the head cold connected to the sinus the sinus connected to the inner ear the inner ear controls equillibrium and the idiot want to be poet falls and hits his head insult to augury congregation, we are gathered to witness the last dying dregs of his immortal pride as he wakes, wrapped in his blanket […]

come in and lie down

they built suicide pods that look like tanning beds for all the advances in medication the one treatment they always tend to forget is for the incorrigible symptom of living pay the fee press the button go to sleep commerce boiled down to it’s finest point you get what you pay for even if it […]

yokai

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 a cherry blossom colored sky, pinks and reds like a watercolor trailing her steps her movements were […]

the time i joined a cult again

i was on the couch thinking about a nap when the knocking started at the door i didn’t want to get up but after a few minutes of not going away i did it was her ‘i’m not home‘ i shouted over her fist banging against the wood ‘go away’ i turned to lay back […]

maybe

and i heard hear say crying from the wooded path you can’t help me no one can and i lifted the branches from under which she hid and told her i can’t help anyone she looked at me and i looked back both of us lost falling apart and she smiled well that’s a start […]

hawk and dove

ahem allow me to reiterate, the simple lies you regurgitate, the self worth you seek to inflate, in time your truth will slowly disintegrate once upon a time i fell into the net you cast, an innocent beguiled and captured, ate all you fed me and hungered for more empty calories made me fat with […]

dirty ugly me

antiseptic, antisocial, all these detrimental disinfectants and antibacterial ointments scattered across the countertop, the harsh light bringing forth every imperfection feels like we live in a world where everyone should be in a bubble, afraid of our shadows and microbial dissidence he sat in his car, staring at the red front door across the street, […]

check out

beyond done furious trapped in a warehouse staring at the fucking by ceiling while everyone is out to lunch a glorified fucking gopher not learning not doing anything but grunt work starving five more hours until another fucking bowl of ramen it’s been a month since i ate different and i’m so tired of it […]

puppet king

a response to AL i’m in control this mantra i repeat to myself all day over and over again as the urge to retreat to hide in my darkened cave overwhelms i’m in control as the waves batter my psyche as the the levees holding the tears at bay buckle and creak i’m in control […]

familiarity

when our lips first met it seemed they had known each other all of their lives we were clumsy and awkward but our lips knew exactly what they were doing, our tongues knew each other intimately, yours had the taste of booze while mine was minty from the gum, together it had the effect of […]

nodding off

the thoughts of sleep and invisible stares of mouths agape and spiders spelunking all just bleached reef in the brainpan ocean, the lazy breeze of insolence and remorse, walking down the green mile with head held high solemn glares from the families of the victims watch from the viewing room the warden in a slick […]

934

he ran into the room shouting “i’m a unicorn, bow down before my majesty” he had fastened a gloriously floppy dildo to his forehead and was prancing about neighing at any who met his gaze his entire body was covered in gold glitter and it rained as he spun paper mache purple laquered hooves wrapped […]

bad brains

he glared stared seemed to be memorizing me from across the room it weirded me out a lot he had those crazy eyes that didn’t seem to focus but beared down like toxic sludge i was uncomfortable then he headed my way barreling like a locomotive i braced for the incoming impact he stood two […]

accusations

she asked me is this what you do you go to different towns and just try to hook up with as many different women as possible is it a game for you talk nice to them make then think there is something there then fuck them and bail to the next town she may as […]

walking contradiction

the outspoken and friendly introvert that hates every word fumbling out of his fool mouth seeking to make love but knowing the process is flawed by his inaccurate touch scared of the love he so desperately seeks wanting a cure all for what ails him but unable to swallow the pills that get caught on […]

schismatic

it was a triumph of tragedy a new glistening peak in the mountains of suffering that have sprung out of the craggy exposed bits of his spine those shards of calcification and ignoble regret filled with fluid and the cabling necessary to control the puppet bone spurs jutting carving new issues lamenting laminating broken by […]

exactly

they say when you see 11:11 you are exactly where you are supposed to be it is a sign you are going the right way everyday i catch it at least once and where i am is not where i need to be listen to me, i am not supposed to be here, this is […]

dissident

i’m a dissident wearing a khaki green pea coat over my ché graffiti T-shirt with torn jeans and scuffed up combat boots no i’m a real dissident recognizing ché for the animal he was and considering him deserved of an unmarked grave in the mountains he wasn’t the romantic figure he is made out to […]

names

she asked me my name i told her confused then asked her for her’s only seemed polite she laughed and said to guess her red hair pulled back into a tight pony tail her ice blue eyes twinkling with mirth she had a severe beauty so i called her sansa she looked taken aback i […]

dreaming

i need cell service, no bars, stem research on hold, insane in the membrane wall, leaking into the plasma, prism, prismatic, shine my light across the spectrum, ultra violent to infractional read boredom, my kingdom of couch worship and empty nest introspection is this a dream the hallways of my mind seem drafty, dusty, cluttered […]

manic

falling down the effevescent sphincter of life, broken glass and razor blades, another manic episode of america’s spiralling into depression gargling molten lava, screaming soundlessly into the void that is hope patently insane, insatiably sanctimonious, begging for help and feeling the cold restrain of emptiness empty, alone, asking god for help and hearing the echoed […]

start today

i still remember the first punk rock album i ever heard i was a metal head, like everyone i knew and i dabbled in hip hop like no one else around me music was then and is now my be all end all but nothing beats discovering it so i was looking through a music […]

assault and bakery

off kilter psychedelic butterflies with hypnotic wings entranced bewitched beguiled bewildered gentle lapping waves of barely tangible delight in an ocean of tickling fingers and carbonated whispers one plane removed gumdrop bridges of coarsely sugared dementia a hint of spice the lashes of cinnamon whips across your deserving back jawbreaker ball gags and licorice restraints […]

loss for words

when they said the phone was for me i felt the cold hand of dread tickle down my spine no one ever called for me at work and if they did they certainly never asked by real name the last time it happened it was the police they wanted to ask questions about a destroyed […]

that’ll show them

oh the constipated horror of it all this half digested mess in my mind these sloppy words that won’t come out and play no matter how i coax them with tales of wine and women and song no these bastards are unwilling to come down from the rafters where they roost upside down like great […]

first impression of louisville

maybe it’s just me or i’m hallucinating but kentucky smells like eleven herbs and spices i’m trapped at the airport no rental car no hotel information bourbon is sounding really good the girl with blue hair offered me a ride but i declined as i don’t know where i’m going i don’t believe her intentions […]

airports

i hate airports all the scents the lack of sense everyone looks confused unsure as if the straight corridors are misleading always a line to piss short tempers all in a hurry to get to nowhere but a wait happy japanese couple, mid sixties came and tapped my shoulder for a picture i turned and […]

apart a part

the onyx velvet dappled with diamonds above me, the orange of the dashboard lights, the calming sound of hardcore punk followed by japanese synth jazz, cyber punk and serene, methodically mythological missives floating in the air around my head the smell of grease and salt, golden arches a blur as i speed by, the overloud […]

an hour at a time

it’s too early to be this damn tired my mind is fixated on the time change i’ll endure soon losing an hour of life i’ll get it back eventually but will i really once gone it seems too fleeting to ever lasso again like the smile and wave at the end of the bar and […]

hushed tones

the silence is palpable, thick and oily and coating everything been throwing plates against the wall, bowls, you name it and they rebound with nary a sound i place my ear to the wall, like tonto would place his to the ground, and feel for vibrations i sense life moving through the wall the lucky […]

a cranky fool

cantankerous writhing in impotent rage the footprints of a million dying dreams driven into my broken spine gnashing my teeth swinging my fists like twenty pound sledge hammers at any movement around me chewing broken glass to savor the taste of incidental ulcerous contussions feel as if i’ve been skinned and laid out as the […]

impossible ossicles

running at full speed in circles getting dizzy from gravitational fluctuations playing havok with my ossicles no sense of direction meandering steady onward though ever forward steadily on to my demise whenever i have a flight coming up i am stricken by the thought this is the time the gremlin on the wing throws a […]

horse flies

i sat on the concrete it was only nine in the morning but it was already hot enough to fry an egg i’ll never get used to that when it is ninety five degrees at three in the morning or nearly one hundred degress at nine the world hasn’t even started spinning at this hour […]

vicariously

my tank is empty today unless a screaming banshee if a head ache counts if so i’m full to overloaded stressed and depressed roaming alone everyone i know is either ecstatic or drowning the drowning far outnumber the happy use our hands to dance across the placid surface of the lake we the forgotten doomed […]

oxymoron

happy endings are oxy morons, endings being inherently melancholy things even when a tale ends happily it is sad to let go of the world and characters that illicit those happy feelings bittersweet endings i can see happy not so much and i can’t think of a single ending in my life that was truly […]

sattelite love

he sits silently, blinking spots from staring at her for hours as she climbs across the sky peering up from the horizon he longs to raise his arms and hold her but the scarred flesh on his arms and chest from the last time make him hesitant he loves her fully but she is a […]

introductions

i’m the third rail, the voltage that courses through your hand, the static electricity on a cold winter day, the tingle between your ears when troubles coming hello nice to meet you name is mike i’m a scorpio, astrologically, a rabbit, chinese zodiacally, a lion, metaphysically, a lover, tongue gymnastically, a poet, failing miserably, a […]

true story time

one time, years ago at this point, i was alone at the bar, a pint of guinness and a shot of whiskey sat in front of me, the dark grain of the bar, combined with the thick lacquer reflecting the neon signs dimly back at me insert generic 70s song in the background, fading into […]

a monet

she’s a monet, le jardin de l’artiste á giverny, hanging in a museum she’s behind glass and protected by a series of lasers, temperature and humidity controlled pristine and perfect i can only admire her from afar i’m chalk art on a sidewalk pastels blotches, blowing in the wind, drawn by clumsy hands and walked […]

shell

she was shriveled once so strong and imposing one look and you stood straighter and minded your manners now she was half the size a quarter of the weight all loose skin and wires the room smelled like shit from the bag half hanging off the bed a clear tube with brown piss oozing into […]

greasy black smoke

i’m an artist and my skin is the canvas upon which i perform menial tasks wielding a razor blade like a paint brush broad strokes subtle definition trace the pulse faster and faster swore off selfies already know what the result will be laser trip wires cover the floor spastic pastiche a ballerina with degenerative […]

keep em coming

it was a dream had to be i walked into the nearly pitch black bar with a terrible thirst smoke filled the air that song i really like by sturgill played on the jukebox “they call me king turd up here on shit mountain, if you want it you can have the crown” i was […]

falling in reverse

he hit her this morning not with his hands but with words i heard them squabble outside my bedroom window woke me from a dead sleep it was the furtive whispering that finally mined through the wall of sleep and pulled me to consciousness a low hum increasing in pitch muted yet deafening i threw […]

bubble

there is an ever expanding bubble of sorrow in my guts, every second clicks by it grows and consumes me will i ever get back home can i just throw it all away what am i, really just an empty shell of regret plus remorse multiplied by bad decisions and empty gestures, a grand sum […]

gravity is exclusionary

awoke on a desert island on a mountain top in a cave at the bottom of the ocean lying in a crater on the moon perched on a branch in the rainforest and in a box six feet deep and steady sinking lower my stomach drops as my head floats in a stupor more aloof […]

endless

woke up into a dream, a seamless transition, running through the park, dark footsteps shadowing my own, heart racing, sat up in bed glad the dream was over, got up to get a glass of water, only my bed was floating over forever clutching my lion blanket, my constant companion since my childhood home burnt […]

dancing alone

there’s a tripwire running from my brain to heart, strung with care down my spinal column and lined with explosives dilligently monitoring for any signs of emotional disruption from daily business all it takes is a flutter do you know how hard it is to operate on yourself to rip yourself open saw through flesh […]

declination

drained and damaged, disemboweled, dismayed and digilently dreading destiny i stood before the gates of hell itself, weeping blood from the empty sockets where eyes once were burning coals in place of lungs, and barbed wire wrapped around my heart, salivating acid and undulating across broken glass i hurt no real words to describe the […]

duat

much to my dismay my eyes opened again this morning it has been weeks of this grainy black and white superlative existence the crackle of film as it rotates through the projector no one here speaks a tongue i can form not that i don’t understand the language per se it is that they speak […]

stops and starts

it’s quiet, the kind of quiet where your heart is the only sound filling the empty room, thwump woosh, thwump woosh birds don’t chirp wind don’t blow sun don’t shine cars don’t drive planes don’t fly water don’t flow she is like light refracted through an icicle, cold and beautiful, but there is a fire […]

morpheus

i fought the good fight but i’m so very tired now the grains of sand that bastard morpheus tosses in eyes grate and grind with every blink take your sleep and your dreams away those whispered promises of fond hope never acquired my head rests on this pillow my muscles ache and you pile on […]

(untitled) 908

the moonlight slides into the room i carve your name with it onto my skin on my eyelids so i only see you as with every blink onto my tongue so all of my words are always for you it rained razors, a torrent of rusted blades, he sat in a field, bared to the […]

i’m evel baby

i’m the evel knievel of emotional stunts looking for my next snake river canyon to leave me broken on the cliff face i’m on a vespa prepared to jump through fountains of adoration only for them to pipe lava at the last second can this illterate fool jump over fourteen buses of childhood fears and […]

anxiety this mourning

anxiety filled this morning feels like angry hornets racing from my right ear to my left stinging across the inside of my skull the air is so still and heavy in here they are welding three feet away and it smells like what space is supposed to smell like burnt steak and ozone sizzling and […]

day breaks night’s face

the sky is bruised as the sun forces itself upon the sleeping world angrily making the air thick with hostility somehow stripping moisture while saturating it with perspiration from all living things just a haze a nimbus around my vision focusing on all the wrong things and in my periphery i see shimmering bodies that […]

high voltage

i’ve got a case of the electro-shock blues zapping my limbic system controlled voltage i don’t want to forget about you just the way it all went south all my thalamuses need a good shaking up flip the switch baby help me forget my hippocampus could use some current the current state not the mental […]