they dart around my head shadowy octopi with fluttering ears propelling themselves through the humid air of early morning dissonance writing in duplicate seeing in triplicate lost in the waves of this ocean bearing down down down on the battered fool in desperate need of relief she comes over the horizon draped in gossamer golden […]
i get high write shitty poetry by myself under the moon a cloud of startear smears across the screen in the steady tapping to the emptiness that fills me in its own impossibility i get drunk compose simple sonnets to you as the room spins a vertiginous whirlpool through my brain as i weave the […]
he wasn’t sad or angry or bitter or lonely or chagrined he wasn’t heartbroken or sick he was just done. the void has a way of insinuating itself into the most mundane days or sending a tendril to darken the brightest ones. it was then as he made a pot of coffee too late into […]
the ache {rattles} through my hollow bones [scurrying] through the empty expanse within my skull faint…echoes…from another pain(another flame)another oligarchy /drenched/ in emotional sins there is no (heaven) greater than the one manifest in you there is no (hell) greater than the distance between this ache in acid etchings along my spinal collapse the sky […]
the tarnish runs too deeply on my soul to ever do anything but reflect your beauty but like a slick of oil on a serene pool sometimes the light catches me just right and i shimmer that’s how you make me feel inside shimmery and maybe a little pretty
i lifted my head as the final line of a poem floated off my tongue a declaration so true that it willed itself into half dreamt existence i inhaled sharply to try and pull the words back so i could feel them in my mouth once more infuse them with the image of you burnt […]
laconic meanderings in the heat of early autumnal reverie(flint spark tinder)heavy is the head that wears the fez tassel streaming(oft forgotten glimpses)lost hours filled with unwept tears diuretic fancies flit(permeating the tenebrae)serendipitous; the bastard sleeps: the bastard slept. rainswept/windswept/unkept/unkempt everything tossed together in the umbra of lackadaisical(semi- plausible)denialbilities a translucent redundancy hums at the edge […]
the spastic aspic flailing in the ill fitting mold molded to his ill fitting sense of self-preservation preserved in the meaty brine suspended in his disbelief failing organs organically organized in the savory slop a buffet of buttery buffering fluttering fluffily static images that once smoothly streamed now the reel to real reels as the […]
some days i am my own worst anenome waiting patiently for the sun to unfurl my petals knowing in the furitive furling of my inexplicable dismay the enemy of my anenome is really me
i woke up feeling like a balloon knotting itself because of leaky conditions torn between maintaining shape or flying loose across the skies stuck in the incidental half thought out measures between twisted like a balloon sculpture in the shaky hand writing of a non-believer scribbling scripture to keep the devil unaware i am coming […]
she sent me a message in the middle of the night (she hates me she misses me she loves me) she went on about how her finger wasn’t the same she misses the different grain of my rougher tip she cannot read my words but now sees them in a hundred other poetic lines (she […]
the morning is still heavy but not in a crushing way more in that pregnant pause way that i almost wonder if i woke or if this is a precursor to some dreamschism the edges don’t mesh from dream to reality or my adventure in the land of nod in dream we walked down hallways […]
i drive down the streets at a hundred miles an hour with my arm hanging out the window painting the city with my amethyst innocuosity singing at the top of my lungs as a cloud of joy radiates like a comet tail behind me a heart full of you a mind full of words too […]
most days the world at large for me can be summed up with two separate time zones pre-dawn promises in which all offers for my soul will be considered for the right deal and after she wakes up to be reminded that my soul isn’t mine to offer no matter how tempting the trade so […]
(violence) neversolves anything but(i)willbe goddamned ifsometimes itdoesn’t feel(fucking)great to bleed hang that on your fucking wall
she kept shoveling coal into his combustible engine sweat running in rivulets through the black dust on her ample chest she ran her pink tongue over every secret unfurling the knots of rope that made up his coarse recollections of anyone before so concerned were they both in their own failings they couldn’t recognize those […]
did you hear that just then drifting joyously on the breeze as it ruffled your hair? that was me whispering i love you as i drive down the street with music too loud and you filling my kind with your intoxicating smile i have a full tank of gas, a thousand songs and a headful […]
our love was a tulip bulb carefully planted in the fall nurtured through friendship during the long cold months until one day i witnessed it sprout within her gaze every chance i had to kiss her as the plant flourished to fill her iris with soft pink petals thriving under our affectionate care like all […]
emotions are spiders haunting the webs within our minds silent still shadows in the dark corners of introspective mist feeling for the slightest remembrance before unleashing hellish watercolors to tint the day’s malaise grotesquely swollen some skitter moribundly overfed on the negative array that constantly contorts the spinal ambiguities until all the threads have become […]
a sense of confusion sweeps across my paper maché wombnestle, a shuddering wave plays along the straight curve of my dasein-ersatz can you hear my heartbeat’s morose morse code tapping into the aether, the burlap sense of self calling in stutters and stops to your subtle nocturne or is this just a case of the […]
to my mind she was a series of non sequiturs because perfection is a stand alone trait even if her perfections stretched beyond the typical scope inherent in mortals as i fell in love with each facet bound in beauty like dream captured in amber in the very randomness of her concatenation there is a […]
the best thing about being no one is you can write whatever the fuck you want without worrying about pretext so when i say i am torn between wanting to do nothing but kiss you for an entire evening with pure hunger and tearing off your panties and taking you from behind with no words […]
she captured secret lightning hiding the discharge in mason jars squirrelled away in every nook or cranny she never did say why she hoarded the crackling forks of purple hued dissonance or where she even got them but once she kissed me after a bottle of wine and i still have a faint scar on […]
the poets sit at a table fellating each other while rolling their eyes smoking cigarettes passing silent judgement while spewing lies bunch of sycophantic swine with no regard for truth less for beauty pouring wine across the sheet pretending they are real poets when they have never known more than a moment’s misfortune never felt […]
how long did i sit sojourn in this cracked lighthouse manning the rocky shore leading ships safely with crew and cargo to the nearest port? penning letters that were never intended to be sent to a her that never intended to read them the gulls the only company as the waves ceaselessly slap the stones. […]
there are crevices in your soul that call to me secret places where no one else has been hidden spots groves of splendor where you pull leaves off flowers far from prying eyes in my longing to learn your classified currents to navigate your silent deflections i lose myself in the simple affection infectious the […]
i feel a budding peace after so long in pieces it confounds me feeling whole when once i was but a hole
self manufactured silence as the miles tick ever downward to a destination an ending the horizon seems just as far out of reach as it always has when the city vanishes all that remains are the calcified concrete overpasses spread like the bones of leviathan under the dim light of an ever diminshed sun i […]
some mornings the alarm is the harbinger of hellish defaults the indifferent screams of the bill collectors digitized to slap the still dreaming hippocampus into fraught wakefulness a steel toed boot nudging the limp limbics into a perpetual state of anxious motion this morning it was your voice whispering love through dream through the pillow […]
i yearn to be the flame on the candle that sends shadows to play upon your naked flesh yearn to be the bubbles clinging to your every heavenly curve the hot water gently carressing every hidden fold of you with my embrace
she lavished my flesh in slow kisses until i was draped in fineries undreamt once suitably attired she slowly lowered the piece de resistance upon my desperate desire as the flames crept casting shadows of light reflected in our locked binary singularity
i was driving through an area i hadn’t been to in a long time came from a different direction didn’t recognize the sights but as i was driving i felt your hand high on my thigh i could taste the vodka and smoke on your lips as we frantically kissed at every stoplight or stop […]
the sun rises impaling the sky with golden flames to strike direct the heart of night spread across in ebon tides an ominous warning threats as yet unfulfilled fade into the aether frightened wisps wrapped in silence ensconced in dream i find myself standing in brown fields of wheat swaying though i feel no wind […]
the ocean or the desert can kill you by dehydration but the desert doesn’t act nearly as fucking smug about it there is a lesson in that but i am too thirsty to see it drowning in whiskey yet always thirsty for another sip i gave up drinking things that just make me more thirsty […]
days and days go by where the only reason to move is the image of her burned bright into my mind the world is a toxic waste belching black smoke to choke down the rejoinders of joy all it takes is that bottomless brown refraction to keep it all in a seeming semblance of order […]
meal worms in the flour wriggling fat yellow meal worms the color of old bones sticking up from the ground they curl into tight balls the moment they hit the sizzling olive oil with crispy garlic little hopping old mucus colored tires the world is filled with meal worms maggots writhing in the underbelly of […]
becoming less poet writing ignored odes to the she that smiles yet the impact is left wanting as her mind tears through the lines mechanically seeking the implications unstated clearly in simple love more a bee seeking the proper pollen to coat the quiil possibly earning a chance for a night of suicidal indulgence with […]
we once made love like lava we made love under a bookcase her lips were sweet as guava her panties made of frilly lace her sweat raced down her spine my tongue ran in quick pursuit ain’t no lady nearly half as fine not princess nor one of ill repute my baby screams loud my […]
there are cracks in my facade where the real me pours out like the antithesis of light(the dark spatter of gray matter braised and battered by aloofly affluent chefs fool tartar with lemongrass clippings on a bed marinated in the finest longing)beams of razored emptiness in the porcelain mask painted smile flaking to the floor(the […]
she painted self portraits though every one i saw looked nothing like her, sure the shape of her nose, the sharp arching eyebrow here, the down turned lip there she would paint hurriedly toss it to the floor to dry as the next began to form on the canvas, yet each one seemed farther removed […]
aerosol solutions to microscopic myopics the hiss of pressurized spray dissipating in the murky sunlight filtered through the fingerprint smudged windows offering a view to a world apart skin particulates dust motes on the stale air hanging serenity suspended in the invisible threads woven by eighth dimensional spiders irradiated blights with unblinking eyes above serrated […]
he didn’t see himself as a daredevil though he rode a rocket propelled motorcycle through the air over canyons in his red white and blue jumpsuit the stars on his shoulder pads as well as in his eyes addicted to the cheers the fame the pain pills that allowed him to lace up his special […]
i spilled myself across the cobblestones in front of her hoping that somewhere in the messy metaphors she would find something pretty she dipped her finger in my everything swirling the colors before licking her finger with an expression of curious wonderment her eyebrow arched as she looked at me with a new understanding written […]
broken glass diamonds on the damp concrete acidic dissonance in early morning emptiness hooves on cobblestone clopping rapture in unregistered fear there is a raptor roosted between the immobile third eyelids gazing blankly over the dim dismalities homespun degeneracies spasming in time with rippling feathers who broke the glass? left it scattered on the steamrolled […]
his heart a paper lantern left untethered to the mortal coil drifting upon the thermals ever higher towards yon frigid misery what light beckons from the frozen heart of sorrow’s bastard impossible heartflaked lattices glistening with pure impurities –a pause; rippled sighs, from painted mouths; along the sharp edge of ignoble dismay– she was draped […]
sylvia fills my heart while idles fill my ears your smile fills my mind as my eyes are filled with tears
second tries are invitations to repeat past mistakes those things that loiter just behind rational thought reminders dawdling in the shadow of actions so the only time i make another attempt is as the bartender pours three fingers of whiskey as the whiskey from the night before is clawing the inside of my brain to […]
she took my crease and smoothed it out but some creases are old so they eventually reshape i have been bent into the shape of a crane so many times i have to fight the urge to sweep low across the water as the sun rises to the east once i was a foil swan […]
people say — there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell as if it is a bad thing but to me the idea of a snowball wanting so badly to attempt a trip to hell is a greek tragedy that opens up in my mind sentient flakes united in the hope of the perilous journey into […]
i admit i have my own issues around my neck rusted chains with an anchor pulling me into the hell always open beneath my vans but look at yourself in the mirror try to convince yourself when i took your breath away with every kiss with every lick every time my hands rolled over your […]
loving someone with anxiety This article destroyed me this morning. This is me. I am broken and worthless. I am not alone in my loneliness and I have sobbed all morning. It doesn’t help knowing I am like this. It doesn’t help anyone that falls into the fool’s world. I’m sorry. I love you. And […]
today as you sleep, i stare at the ceiling pondering the sea salt crystals on your lovely hands as they dig through the crates of my every unspoken thought the hard tangle of roots writhing just under the flesh the forks of lightning dancing within your eyes as you seek the hidden words in every […]
as exhaustion sweeps through my weary mind the darkness pulls me deeper into its embrace you ripple through my mind with sparks of electricity teasing my quickening pulse as i long to fall asleep clutching you instead of this pillow that soaks in the dreamkisses meant for your lips alone
a malaise of insouciance lays over my being solemn as spinning prayer wheels in a brightly painted candlelit cave on the side of a snowy mountain unseen by man in centuries the loa, the spirits demons, angels, monsters all creep about the insolent indifference that shines in prismatic apathy across crystal bones and belabored sighs […]
she has three settings for her stare seducer reducer stranger i had been on the receiving end of the first too many times to count she could just look at me and all the blood in my body knew exactly where to congregate with that one glance i would begin to limber up if i […]
this picturesque obelisk emblazoned with a slow descent into rigorous decay the world is gorgeous chaos as the sun’s maternal glare falls balefully resting on the frozen surface of the lake as it opens up to swallow the light there is no clearly marked exit just a box six feet deep waiting impatiently the chaotic […]
in my haste to leave this morning i seem to have misplaced my smile luckily i can wear a mask just don’t look into my dead eyes
it appears my fragility was just the precursor to agony the drums began rumbling within the vacant halls in my skull a steady staccato that has risen to deafening tones i fell asleep at one to be woken at three to lay to lie telling myself this is fine this is fine i stood in […]
i feel fragile nearly shattered barely able to keep it together shaking myself into pieces the broken is close to the surface and i am not alright i ache but it is a soul weary ache an ache that drips along the folds of my fingerprints coalesces around the whorls of indecency a subtle vibration […]
beep hey it’s just me calling real quick to tell you i love you if you are finished hang up, or press two to erase and start over beep hello it’s me ummm it’s mike i miss you that’s all if you are beep hi mike calling i was thinking of you and wanted you […]
her beauty crucifies my longing eyes with gentle sighs that intensifies my needful cries for her pressed firmly next to me this lonely morning of wondrous wanting. just a taste to fill my mouth with wildflower nectar enough of her to stave off the day until i can tumble headfirst into her embrace like coming […]
i have a scar on my right thumb not a big one nor one i even recall getting maybe a quarter of an inch long two raised lines with a small channel from whatever it was that cut my flesh whenever it was it occurred not as flashy as the cigarette burns hidden under arm […]
halfway through another bottle of rye, glasses forgotten, long burning pulls, i can’t tell if i am terminally disinterested or improbably disinterred everywhere i look all i can see is the faces of the dead and dying, fireflies illuminate dead black eyes, while old white pricks scream in fancy ill fitting suits bloated flatulent corpses […]
when i begin the process of culling a new collection i am forced to read my words i don’t do that i don’t read and reread, there is no painstaking process of seeking perfection i vomit i publish i begin the next so they are new to me when i go through, i don’t recall […]
the last farrier in the combustion era shoeing the mares out of senseless sensibility striking the orange metal shaping the horseshoe with hammer and tongs he works mechanically rote muscle memory he shares more in common with the automobiles than the people that drive them after a long day at the forge he splashes cool […]
your eyes sing to me of spring while your smile promises summer my hands trace autumn upon your flesh while we huddle in winter’s embrace i give to you my solstice my brightest days my darkest nights you give to me your equinox as your love transitions the seasons in my mind
i woke this morning with a burning in my belly with words dripping like honey from my tongue to stain the world around me in the varied shades of your smile i am no poet no sage offering words of wisdom just a humble fool that paints the pallettes leaving the canvas unstained by untrained […]
in the shed is a paint can with a dent in the side drippings of gray that once was pale lilac dried in faded refrain rust speckles the the once burnished metal dead zones of oxidized daydreams colonizing around the peeling label with a child’s shaky meaningless scribbles the lid sits just low enough a […]
amid the syncopated wombmurmur in the heart of a dying star i hear your voice soft and clear, wormwood coats the undertongue as night falls over the sleeping disaster promised in your sigh. i walk steadfast into the whirl of blades unafraid or unfazed as the metal strikes bone, soft and clear i hear your […]
the words of the profit, prophetical projections of puritanical plutocracies, the sound of spare change rattling in the paper cup hearts gurgling in the throats of sick infants, coal soot streaked breasts on which the cleft lip suckles, dead dreamers drift among the reeds the golden apple of eris, the unblinking eye of horus, the […]
the sky is gray her eyes are brown and i cannot tell if it is mine or her pulse pounding in my temples but i love the groove have you ever stood stone still in the woods on a cool autumn morning with a handful of corn as a doe stares in bewildered fear a […]
the limbs of the cherry tree are overladen with fruit that falls to the dirt to fester in sinful sickly sweet decay the branches droop away from the nurturing sun as the insects feast on the forgotten scraps there are times the weight of the globe seems precariously perched on the precipice of disaster where […]
she has a way of cutting through my bullshit carving away the flowing flowery words until all that remains is my quivering truth naked on the floor before her she has a way of understanding sometimes i get overwhelmed the world keeps taking i keep giving she sees me becoming a husk so she gently […]
in the last moments of night when sleep calls with a lullaby pulling heavy eyelids down down down do you know i see your face that i utter your name with words of love as the pillow cradles my face that my last thought as i fall into the ink stained hallways of dream is […]
her lips tasted like confession and ache The air felt like confession and ache but it all made sense when I saw you. You were wearing your hurricane heart across your chest and I was missing the old version of me. There was a tiny tear in your russet plaid shirt, just enough for me […]
i wasn’t staring longingly into the abyss i was remembering the touch of your lips to my throat your breath on my skin as you bit hard to remind me that love wasn’t always a vase full of wilted roses or a half eaten box of chocolates you drew blood because it brought me back […]
i staple a fresh butterfly to my chest to feel the fluttering wings as nervous pattering overlaying the dessication in simple sublimation while the world evaporates in unhinged chaos deep down i know that if i ever let myself freely express the fullness of me that is magma in my chest i would lose whatever […]
how long did they expect poor hades to sit surrounded by the dead cheated by his brothers that ravaged the skies and seas with wanton lust and greed there is a solemn insanity in the absolutes absolute zero causes atoms to sit at their lowest energy value absolute silence causes a mind to shatter into […]
in the quiet hours after the world has fallen asleep the whispers fill my head as i desperately drift towards slumber that never fully embraces me back same with the universe itself it only gives limp half attempts at comforting embraces just enough to know it is forced unmeant nonreciprocal incidental brushings against rather than […]
there is always a part of the broken soul that is kept hidden a secret a pain that isn’t shared a shame scratched deep into the soul but she gets it there is something frightening but comfortable in knowing you don’t have to hide or pretend sometimes you aren’t falling apart i could never show […]
there is a daisy in a dented coffee can on the windowsill over the sink a spadeful of soil with the flaccid flower leaning against the window as if homesick for a home it never knew while i whisper soft secrets in life giving breath only for the dejected plant to wilt even worse perhaps […]
i sat at the table listening as he droned on and on and on his this was swollen some number was elevated his this was out his that was in goddamn man give up curl into a ball die die die for fuck sake lean into the inevitable he looked offended at my eruption my […]
she tattooed my mottled skin in wanton need with just the promise of lip and teeth i was a blank canvas before she made me into a work of art
a constabulary of carnations, prim balls of pandering pink puffs, swaying in the morbidity, inelegant indulgences like the swollen lips of lust, herself her cheshire grin ignites a charred patch of desire flaring across the cottonwood fluff covered fields, a quick burn leaving naught but ash behind the swell of her breasts, supple rapture in […]
the strippers are out of work in a pandemic fully clothed looking for jobs that will pay a couple hundred in cash an evening eventually transitioning to sex workers on the internet for the huddled masses yearning to be touched willingly giving out their crucial credit card info for a moment of connection. i don’t […]
I watched the crowd gather outside, as if word had gotten out. I was glad we had the triple locks on our doors although I questioned their placement only briefly before I was distracted by his gaze. I don’t think he’s ever fully realized the weight of his stare. It grabs me, like hands around […]
i took a hammer to all the hardest parts of myself until there was nothing but bonesand filling the skinsack the incidental invertebrate trying to perfect this imperfection knowing no matter how many swings there will always be the memory of rigid truth in the hand clutching the hammer i sit still against the alley […]
i woke with great inspiration to write a poem the coffee is ready the puppy has been petted the sun has begun to rise the sun has begun to rise all other thoughts vanished as the light snuffed for days peeked up over the city now i sit embraced by the warmth some poems are […]
she melted the night with eyes of flame pensively pondering prehensile propagate purgatorially penning pedantic prose from my hands shot metal strings that pierced the detached retina that blurred the lines etched across the mortal leer the night oozed tar across her ebon fingers as her smoldering eyes dripped pitch in sharp round tears echoed […]
the sky was blue, blue blue, clear blue, sky blue i lived up north a long time but i don’t think i ever saw blue ice, never quite understood, blue is cold, ice is cold, lips turn blue but i never saw blue ice sapphires are blue, sometimes blue, sometimes not, but those aren’t sapphires […]
sometimes i drive through sections of town where the houses are hidden down private drives with trees lining the street so it seems like in the middle of the city there is nothing for miles i guess it is sort of the truth as there is nothing there for me in the hidden homes with […]
i can tell your fingers knocking on the door smell your perfume from two miles away fight or flight ignites in my chest but i know i am flightless an ostrich with my head buried deep in the sand how long did it take to see the truth in you even with all the shit […]
the world feels half a step off there is a palpable surrealism dripping to form mirrorpuddles but i know instinctively not to gaze too deeply into the ambiguities they reflect affecting disaffected instances of rejections prior to the actual execution of escapology apologies i haven’t seen the sun in days now i question if i […]
i woke with a poem in my head that i do not feel like sharing with a name on my tongue i have been silently whispering and a craving of which i cannot define some days are like this i clamp down on my secrets because i fear someone may steal them or laugh at […]
The cold follows me into every room and I don’t like the air between your lips and mine (it started small, small enough we could ignore it, a bad day turned into a week, turned into a month, turned into she couldn’t look at me without the side of her mouth, that mouth that had […]
there is an indignity in realizing you are now too old to die young. but there is a measure of comfort in knowing there is still time to leave as much wreckage as possible. what do you say? hold hands while we burn as much of this place to the ground as we can manage […]
when i was a kid my favorite season was winter the heavy snows in illinois would smother the sound laying heavy over everything but my joy was waking before the sun rose in her pallid state to watch the light reflect off the millions of diamond coated tree branches the air was too cold for […]
your words pluck the ukulele string that runs through my heart with a perfectly clear note that thrums inside my chest
when i woke this morning, it was easy to misinterpret the heron’s call through the static I stood in the door shadow of the narrow cellar steps immersed in the hallucinogenics of summer and the hard slap of fall the world felt musty, the sky seemed dusty, everything felt slightly askew, as I took wobbling […]
she rattled the cage door with a smile that quickly faded as i stared into her fathomless gaze she poked and prodded, a long sharp stick with her perfume soaked into the blood wet wood i see your heart, you know, sending kaleidoscopic images onto the ceiling when you sleep i watch the colors bleed […]
Mike's Manic Word Depot 