the thunder rattles the calcified bits of dead dream in the long silent solace of who i once was the rains pummel the windows of the squalor while reality rolls in the collected trash of another failed attempt at life beyond the daily allotment of means dribbled across the failings of my icarus like fanciful […]
another etching on the long litany of woes that seems to surround the wilderness of unbidden thoughts railing against the bitter winds of yesterday blowing down the open collar to caress the nape of another noose bedazzled neck
they strode across the snowy fields a line across the horizon rifles over shoulders feet in step with the drummer’s staccato pace the reactionary war to perceived slights bringing out the warriors from behind their fiercely tapping keyboards the steady call to not shoot until they see the whites of their lies defending the indefensible […]
the shallow mimicry screams at me as the words fall from mute lips to be showered upon deaf ears again i search my skin for an impossible to pronounce swedish sounding glob of consonants and umlauted vowels some assembly required product was assuredly damaged in shipping no returns not liable for pedantic poems another case […]
another dreary day in the back half of a city covered in grime the boarded up windows of strip clubs adult shops and small stores that once accumulated dreams gone to out of business signs he sits in front of the pump as a line of cars forms behind him yet he pays no heed […]
i feel the lick of the lashes as the inexplicable whips of rancid understanding leave lines of bloody reminders down the length of my ability to verbalize this nauseating truth the blissful ignorance of a life left painless long since discarded with childhood fantasies in the ditch of stagnant refusals it is a form of […]
i have looked everywhere for the thing i have misplaced for the thing i have forgotten for the thing that tickles the back of my foggy mind on a chill winter day in the middle of another mental break in the same lost anthem of hope in the midst of betrayal it isn’t anywhere even […]
it isn’t like i am an amnesiac it’s just that i have shredded every memory so the burden of guilt is just another dumpster fire in the distance it isn’t like i am a human being it’s more like i am a human who is being inert like one of the noble gases but without […]
we weren’t two adjoining puzzle pieces nor her the itch while my pensive hands scratched furiously we weren’t the sun and moon we just were like two ancillary stars just out of frame pulsing quasars that tapped a singular message of maybe not forever but how about for now there was a subtle beauty to […]
her smile curled around the ventricular gasp of a fading heart coiled tightly her petulant gaze injects the sweetest venom articulating the arterial silence within
it spilled across the rain slicked sidewalk in a puddle of the deepest crimson a waterfall of ruby with pink foam as it sprayed serenely in great arcs into the misty overcast morning in the center of nowhere population everyone all he could do is stare dumbfoundedly at the white plastic cap in his hand […]
they say you never really fail if you tried your best but tell that to my bank account as it goes overdrawn again it is hard not to lose faith in your ability when all you’re able to do is beg for scraps which is no ability at all
there was a way an ethereal sway to the hidden currents making her hair dance as i stared in horror at her broken form just beneath the placid surface she appeared as if under glass poorly formed by an arthritic glass blower at the end of another long day with sore hips and back i […]
she wears the tiara of muse as if the sun doesn’t glint from the jewel encrusted band to blind her as she strides across the landscape of my mind with gentle steps to crush all meaning from my lack of understanding yet each time she gazes at my wonder she only sees the gears spinning […]
the candle burns down the rivulets of wax long since spilled over the brass holder as tendrils of manic dream to slowly encroach upon the blank vellum where the quill sits untouched for the last hour a fevered thought races from all angles of diseased angels falling like dying stars to crash into the dry […]
if you are raised with spicy foods you build a natural tolerance to the heat this explains my drinking coffee black as the bitter tang of disappointment has rendered my tongue numb in the battered tapestry of my soul large sections have been bleached white with only the afterimage of dream in the fine threads […]
the kettle whistles as his body lays cooling in a pool of piss on the kitchen tile the horn blares as the bass thumps as she angrily drums her fingers on the steering wheel five minutes before five minutes before the world was ripe with promise five minutes before just five minutes before down it […]
there are these little gnats flying around my place, every where i look i see them at least i think i do, sometimes i sit here and wonder if they are little wisps of dying dreams struggling to catch my eye and remind me there is more to… this i set out cups of vinegar […]
i know the streets of my city like the back of my mother’s hand the details are fuzzy until it strikes me across the face i sit in the parking lot tasting blood before spitting a tooth onto the dirty asphalt i know the skyline out the highrise windows like gazing into my father’s eyes […]
every lie you laid like a hen in the roost that you sat on nurtured let hatch knowing the damage they would do but taking great pleasure in the chaos you willingly have sown one day they will come back to you like the million daggers cast into those that have trusted none shall gather […]
it hasn’t stopped raining yet today as i lay here in the dark wishing you were curled up beside me the rain lulls a sense of calm even as the torrential fallings woke me from fever induced dream yet as i reach in the dark to my left nothing greets me beside the crater like […]
when you left i forgot how to speak, my tongue grew heavy in my mouth, a slab of raw liver, awkwardly flapping up and down but the noises that came out were little more than moans and groans i lost the ability to conjugate, to articulate, to conversate, to concentrate on anything but was that […]
drowning on dry land lungs filled with fluid thick and viscous suffocating every breath that wheezes it’s way in or out it is bound to get better or not a nap that might do the trick
as i lay in fever soaked nightmare her smile calls forth through the night the sickness claws upon my chest wheezing wet coughs fill the dark room around me she casts down her halo of light to offer relief in the sullen suffering no matter how bad it may be she is the hope in […]
as i shed this skin like a diseased pauper loosing my spoiled meal into the gutter of indignant spite the wretched clouds that mask the cerulean skies cast naught but bitter spittle down to smear the rot of this incomprehensible failing across the cobblestone streets that spiral leading deeper into the nowhere of lost ambition […]
she was walking down the road alone a backpack over a shoulder tears in her eyes i saw her approached cautiously she had the look of a deer in the woods that heard a branch snap escape written in her bright blue eyes as she stared at me we made small talk for a moment […]
in the brine of resolute redaction the sole soul of solitary dissonance finds purpose behind the bitter sighs of retracted heartspun shade there are billions of words yet not one that can describe in totality the encroaching madness of choking down the sobs of loss and need with any certainty the bitterness tastes sweet as […]
i have given up on dreams because for a brief moment i had tasted reality and the hollow moments after waking are just shards of glass driven deep into the third eye of hope an instance of the cure exacerbating the disease
it is in the purview of the hyperbolic to prance upon the bones of pretense with no preamble or precognition planning ahead is akin to playing the role of funeral director in the final act of one’s own one person play of feeble ambiguity so on he scribbles onto the few remaining unblemished pieces of […]
he clutched her close to his chest feeling the heat leave his body as the chill of the grave brought on hypothermia symptoms like necrosis that spread through the spiderweb maze of blackening veins
a sudden shift of forty degrees flurries of snowflakes unable to survive the still warm ground yet defiant in desire to fly it is a storm of confusion as the upper atmosphere refuses to consider the needs of ground level necessity this echoes through my cracked soul as my brain signals in direct opposition to […]
A cattle drive from Dallas Texas to Abilene Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. The sleepy little town of Duncan, nestled in the Indian Territory, gives the promise of a break from the trail dust. But unbeknownst to all, something hungers for flesh in the untamed land. Something powerful. Soon the dry ground will be soaked […]
He was walking along the sidewalk, enjoying the light breeze and people watching. He always enjoyed downtown excursions. There was something like being ensconced in a cocoon of concrete and glass. And the ladies that hurried down the sidewalks chatting into phones while he happily enjoyed the toned calves above the impossibly high heels that […]
she smiled when she talked about falling in love her eyes grew distant as she recalled that exact moment of chemical intoxication of infatuation she never talks about falling out of love but there are moments when the sadness is etched into her features by a masterstroke of devastation of isolation i just wish she […]
she had considered herself a mistress of topiary so it came as no surprise when i awoke to the sound of shears in the middle of the night as she ran the cold steel across my flesh in an effort to carve the shape she saw within me to the surface with every cut every […]
he sees signs in everything searching the mercury induced sickness of the everyday cyclone of indistinct distinctions seeking answers to unasked questions unanswerable queries
the clock in the clock tower is ten minutes slow or maybe i jumped backwards against the flow of the arduous river that seeks to break me down i cannot recall the last fifteen minutes but i am aware i have lived them as nauseum no matter what that tower tries to tell me as […]
she waved her hands over the crystal ball on the table between us muttering under her breath while i stared at the mists as they swirled thickly within the globe then she stopped arched an eyebrow at me as her lip curled in disdain with no pomp she stood and pointed towards the door behind […]
the comfortable shirt hidden amongst the skeletons in my closet is made of fire retardant asbestos every time i slide it over my head i can feel the carcinogens permeate the porous surface of another day spent thinking oh poor me there is something soothing about ingesting poison and calling it the cure maybe because […]
the car ahead of me drives through the drifting leaves on the quiet back road sending a cloud of shimmering detritus floating like a school of fish into the air they seem to move of their own accord darting on the exhaust fumes all around me as if i had fallen into a new world […]
sometimes i remember that we live in a world without david bowie sometimes i remember that we live in a world without lemmy then i realize at one time we had kerouac, bukowski, and thompson all creating at one time the world was countless typewriter ribbons and a thousand gallons of whiskey lighter, but oh […]
he said he could read people see them for who they really were not who they projected to the world at large it didn’t seem possible until the day he saw her and was immediately stricken blind that is the day i became a believer
i have kept my eyes closed this morning clinging tight to the remnants of dream my nose flush with her scent my tongue infused with her taste if i dare open my eyes even for a moment i know it will all fade away
in the middle of Wisconsin lived a man in an old wooden shack he fancied himself quite the tailor and created his own shirt and slacks but there was one little problem his new outfits were quite a mess because Ed Gein had a strange fashion and his outfits were all made out of flesh […]
she had the sad beauty of a tear glistening like crystal in the early morning sunshine the melancholy malaise of the last bright blossom in a field of brown as winter blows kisses promises of ice
It’s been 10 months since my debut book, Notches: A Collection, came out. And included in it is probably my favorite thing I have ever written. Persephone, my reimagining in poetic form of the story of Kore and Hades. When I wrote it, everything changed for me. It gave me the courage to try writing […]
the penance of rigorous self denial is the panic of riotous self dismissal i am an anthropomorphic house of cards built to serve as a storm wall it is increasingly difficult to gauge the tensile strength of hope against a mountain of evidence as all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are shattered […]
i used to think i had a weak spot for you but over time i realize it is a structural integrity issue because every time you come around i feel as if i could collapse i can feel the void in the basic building blocks of who i am filled with a deficiency that can […]
i write to you in poetry because the words would stick in my throat if i tried to say them out loud i write to the world in poetry because the feelings are more than i can leave bare in the light i write it all in metaphors so it muddies the waters between lip […]
i have never seen a gigantic squid but that doesn’t stop me from dreaming about the hunter in the inky black i have never ran my fingers through the rings of saturn but i can feel the icy drift on my fingertips in the quiet so many illusions, delusions, intrusions, a mass confusion in a […]
from the cracked rock flows the sweetest spring dancing down the crags to pool gently before running across the gravel of once mighty stone cutting deeper into the forest floor dappled with light falling through the waving canopy above a doe bows to drink a crown of gnats buzzing around her head as the underbrush […]
the cigarette sits smoking in the glazed ceramic ashtray on the dark wooden table a glass of amber whiskey sweats as the three ice cubes slowly melt in the hot summer air the sound of miles playing softly in the background punctuates the sounds of the busy street outside he sits in a yellow sweat […]
the moon looks like the crescents of blood pooling in my palms as anxiety clenches my hand in her loving embrace the angelic host sings hallelujah as the spots grow to encompass my vision like celluloid burning in frames of divine combustion
i would pretend to not hear her so she would have to say my name make incidental contact send shivers of pleasure down my spine with the way her lips and tongue formed the words electricity at the touch of her fingers so in the heavy silence of sorrow the fear of clinical necrophilia has […]
is it any wonder he hides in his cave wary of any sounds from the outside world he hears the crackle of fires raging the whistle of bombs dropping punctuated by heavy sighs so he buries his head afraid if he sees his shadow it will mean six more weeks of horror.
sometimes everything just seems so goddamned bleak it is a wonder the sun ever shined at all
the endless sorry the princess is in another castle routine of running across battlefields in search of peace is the proverbial dog chasing its tail unsure what will happen when the damned thing is finally caught spending all the time chasing phantoms that it becomes the pursuit not the eventual end is there any benefit […]
it’s another day staring at gray skies in another parking garage in another dead end day of less than optimal mental health alone craving the comfort of a shared mindscape in this insanity of numbed reality press your lips to mine as the wobbly spin of the globe sends the desperation of a billion souls […]
her eyes dart back and forth as the walls steadily close in on her the floor becomes lava the ceiling lowers and all she can do is smile some days are a struggle while others are for giving in to the inevitable giving up on the struggles of fighting another day she doesn’t care because […]
the broken husk drags itself across the dead grass drawn by need by necessity it’s every moment one of endless hunger numbed with the icy blade of death driven by mindless intinct a trail of rotten flesh infested with squirming fat maggots as air whistles from collapsed lungs the milky white gaze sees nothing the […]
curb the cravings for anything more than the minimalistic requirements the only thing that comes with wanting more than the daily allotment is the ever engaging opticals of chaos
the aquamarine wheat shimmered across the fields as another gust of wind threatened the sky full of grit tinged purple with clouds of dust whipped up from beyond the broken tips of the mountain range stained red from rivers of blood flowing into the valley on the other side the tall boughs of the firs […]
when i supped on the fruits of youth partook in revelry masked my symptoms with the cures i employed ambiguously enjoyed subjected and rejected the inability to see the trees for the forest of hieronymus bosch poisoned shrubbery as i willfully pulled the jesus bolt from the helicopter as i cut the tightrope mid act […]
don’t this is gonna sound lame. but tomorrow is just another day it isn’t a magic portal to a wondrous new world tomorrow is just that so take a tip from me, buckaroos, trust me on this one be the best you no matter what day it is, do not accept anything less than fucking […]
the snow crunches beneath the heavy footsteps loud in the silent night the sheet of ice on the river cracks as the temperature plummets there is a subversive transience in matter when the air seems to move slower as atoms vibrate out of sync with the desolate variance in the end all succumb to the […]
she stares at me with huge brown eyes that shimmer like a black hole drawing me into the powerful gravitational pull of eternity my every urge is to wrap my arms around her neck and hug her tightly to accept her gift of pure innocent affection with no ulterior motives we stare for the entire […]
saffron colored whimsies circle my half vacant skull traversing the moments between incandescent daydream and inclement sorrow it smells faintly of dandelion tea with a faint undertone of cyanide so i practice painting my face for my starring role in the screaming mine trying to ignore this impending doom perched like a raven with tentacles […]
the taint of the year no longer is it christmas not quite the new year a lost week of meandering wrapped in confusion of sorts
Before deciding to write stories, I was a voracious reader. Over thousands of books I learned from the successes and failings of the books I read. This has led to a sort of Bible in my head of do’s and don’ts. Tropes to avoid, for lack of better words. This is one I consider egregious. […]
how much of the real me is too much me for the world at large to handle as the porcelain mask cracks to expose scarred skin pent up lies irreversible damage inflicted by weather by hope by dream by love by self monsters are real they hide behind our eyes whisper little acts of horror […]
did they tell you how i wept as i held the plastic heart that held what was left of you before we buried it by the sapling did they mention the ten year breakdown i went through in slow motion as the world stopped turning the day you died like swimming in quicksilver with an […]
been forgotten the ill gotten gains of the rotten nectar of ambrosia spilled from the trembling lips of divinity to slither across the land like serpents of desire my mind aches yet it pains me to medicate to deviate to contemplate a world where the agony doesn’t linger like the last listless kiss of love […]
the leaf in the river does not fight the current of the water it just let’s the movement take it where it will the man in the river fights to keep his head above for constant fear of drowning even as that is the likely outcome the fish in the river sees only movement or […]
the rain falls gray on a backdrop of gray on city of gray in a morning of fog where the world is still sleeping in for lack of want to swim in the dingy gray these moments make my heart seize up in my chest as her red lips are the only color i can […]
the turtle floats mindlessly one with the cosmos around it buffeted by the solar gusts it’s painted shell a work of true beauty glistening lights reflecting back into the void of space a reciprocating pulse and hum of phases the turtle is tired millennia spent with the burden of ungrateful life gently spinning around the […]
there is this thing that if you don’t have it you truly don’t understand what it is you may have experienced the edges of it, but it was a pit stop on the road, not a destination it’s called mania, it is pure speed and light and joy and wonder and your kind in perfect […]
if you were to pin your hopes to me you’d see me deflate fly around the room as the illusion is broken the inflatable fool slouched in the corner i am less than you think than i wish i am the great whirlwind of flaws abandoned since childhood to dwell with the other misfits in […]
the walls around us are made of iron bars but no matter how hard i try to decipher the conjunction of peril it isn’t apparent if you are the prisoner or if it is me so i clang my metal cup across the bars unable to see the inner workings of the pin and tumbler […]
she poured her heart onto the paper with careless abandon, an ambivalent amputation of the woes that circumnavigate her sphere of lonely sighs the rainy season reminds of long afternoons spent watching the storms as we lay naked making promises neither of us meant to get to things we both desired as the thunder sounds […]
call it the end of the year blues that subtle breaking the christmas woes where you plaster on a smile as it feels like everything is f a l l i n g a p a r t alone in a crowded room afraid of smiling faces prone to tears at the drop of a […]
https://wp.me/pb2MQS-15A Follow the link for a relatively inappropriate Xmas tale that takes place on Thanksgiving. The acts are all true. The names were not changed to protect the innocent. Hugs and sloppy wet kisses Happy whatever you celebrate or Wednesday love me
River has a present The uber talented River and Emje combine their unique skills to craft a wonderful tale. And it is free today! Merry Christmas to all.
there is a moment a singular instance when the stars in the sky shine only for you when the blessings of the cosmos send quasars of indescribable beauty to reflect on yours in those soft seconds when your light outshines those of infinitesimal space all focuses on you
seeing her again was like slipping on an old pair of glasses the world was blurry i felt out of my field of depth and in the end i was just nauseous she was like a trip to the amusement park at first it was wild every ride was something to be enjoyed remembered experienced […]
twas the night before christmas and all through the home new york hardcore was blaring the cro mags screaming of sins to atone the kids are not here yet and i am all alone just tapping out shitty poetry by the glow of the phone santa sent a text message he’ll have to visit next […]
she wrote her fantasies across my bare flesh with one long fingernail dipped in the venom of forever i shuddered in spasms as the paralytic took over my entire body she purred in my ear as i convulsed whispering every dark dream she ever had into my willing mind to play out across the canvas […]
if you light three candles of blood red wax pull out the ouija board ask the spirits to name the biggest mistake you could make my name will be spelled out one letter at a time she hated that i got logical when it came to arguments yet she got algebraic exchanging numerics for symbols […]
the forest of thorns drags across the tender flesh dripping poisons that sizzle upon the brown grass of tepid longing infecting those that stumble blindly through the hellshit of awakening to rail against the light of reality piercing the hangover of last night’s reverie celebrating the end of one bastard day to begin the next […]
Hey everyone. As you know, my first collection Notches: A Collection, came out earlier this year. Now it is end of the year awards time and I really need to start getting my name out there. How can you help? Glad you asked, dear readers. this is horror awards If you could take a moment […]
the words are swimming just out of reach focus is fleeting lost in the daze of the holidays a coup a coop a loop in lieu of anything making any sense the ravens circle overhead, beady eyes trained on the slow moving body leaving a trail of crimson across the hard packed earth seven times […]
this year began in destitution by the third month my car was repossessed my phone was shut off and i sat at the edge of eviction my first book came out yet the scrabble of survival diminished the joy instead of feeling like i had moved forward it felt like ten miles in reverse then […]
i was spinning on endlessly spinning without sense without purpose without hope then she slipped into the grooves worn from time to make my soul play a song so sweet i wept maybe it took the right moment to find the music of our souls or maybe it just took the right needle all i […]
the reports listed it as just another yuletide suicide another heartbreak for the holidays a mere blip on the radar of talk of peaches and tyrants an ink smear on the corner of the day a click to bait the tapping fingers of this doomed society while the festive garland is replaced with funeral shrouds […]
i am a screaming mine a silent singer painted into the frame of the opposites that engulf my fragile carbon core with veins of diamond an arsonist in firefighter garb a surgeon with numb hands another blind fool staring at the sky wondering why the sun has yet to rise my spine is an ouroboros […]
he is no longer able to tell which side of the ice shelf he is on under while slowly drowning or above suffocating from cumulative fears so he wills himself to sink to fall farther from the rotten center in which he spends his days he wishes he were a squid boneless color shifting able […]
welcome to the new normal anxiety depression breathing in pollution where you are most likely part of the problem no one has a solution fill the scrips pop the pills forget the feels settle into the numbness of the constant barrage of soundbites retorts replies facts are subjective opinion is fact reality is surreal the […]
tis the festival of light, ushering in the dark winter solstice hail unto thee lord of the aborigines wisest king saturn all to be equal let no one hold any wealth stand, undivided usher in the time of the longest of darkness on this shortest day this celebration of joyous saturnalia we give unto thee
i have come to accept the idea i may never walk on mars i may never be the first astronaut cowboy president of the united states i most likely won’t star in a movie or write a bestseller or discover atlantis that’s okay i found my voice and a handful of people take pleasure in […]
he follows maps all day no idea where he is headed just trusting that the marked path is the correct one even if truly he is driving in circles over and over getting farther from where he wants to be yet closer to the destination he fears an ever diminishing spiral towards the end of […]
he removed his hubcaps installed sun dials on all four tires drives in reverse everywhere he goes in the feeble dream of turning back the hands of the clock it is a desperate hope that fills his empty center as he draws with white out on all of things he would rather not see seeking […]
Mike's Manic Word Depot 