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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 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, 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 […]
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 […]
‘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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
they don’t pay you a living wage they pay you a survival wage they make you a junkie to the nine to five you don’t notice it is really an eight to six the hour for lunch that they don’t pay you for but ignore you working through the greatest myth was that they freed […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
as i walked around saying good bye to my life, meager belongings for a week or two or six packed in front of me drake, my dragon fern is indifferent the ceiling doesn’t care if it gets stared at, it is aloof and believes it is a floor for the apartment above dual natured and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
been bandaged together with twine and pieces of tape like a sculpture of a self portrait of norman rockwell on crank or an escher devolving into the unscrupled madness of a bender on the wrong side of the tracks in hell wearing women’s panties and tap-dancing like a feral cat being tased wearing my neon […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
i was driving home just wiped out done pulled up to home and as i did one of those stupid love songs came on the one you tell yourself to delete but you can’t pull the trigger and with dread the shuffle goes and the first notes hit you like a hammer to the jaw […]
back in the day if you were talented some rich fool would give you housing pay your habits all in the name of art you could have sex with the servants the daughters wine soaked debauchery as long as you put out consistent pieces nowadays we scramble and write and pour our souls out and […]
i wonder if one day i’ll hang up my work boots never to wear them again me and my comfortable vans from then on out or will i be that old angry man barely able to tie my boots or bend over without pain dreaming of retirement that will only come with a box in […]
it rained molten metals a curtain of sparks showering the ground as if struck from hephaestus himself i luxuriated in them this swarm of biting fireflies dancing and bouncing off the hot concrete it amazes me still the lengths man will go to master the earth the metallurgy and near magic of electrical impulses did […]
she stared at my blinking lights in confusion what are these either my phone or my heart is running low you don’t know no do you i’ve never seen those before i thought that all of us had them not me then you’re not defective i feel defective they install then in the ones that […]
heavy eyelids empty words echoing do i sleep or write another pensive ode does it matter in the long run what’s another night of fitful sleep another stop start smattering of words i don’t deserve either but i feel like i need both some days i feel like a pirate displaced from my proper time […]
she gave me most of her but she kept the parts that mattered her mouth explored her teeth bit her hands they had their way but when it came to the part i most desired her heart she never gave that away there was not a piece of her i didn’t taste fondle tease into […]
the welding casts aurora borealis on the warehouse ceiling the men shuffle about like the walking dead it’s never quiet as the host of lights dance across the ceiling and clang of metal and saws and arcs of electricity and they walk with stiff legs and worn out souls worn out soles worn out the […]
yesterday was a special day for the poet illiterate two wonderful poets took my words and made them into something beautiful it’s funny see i post my rampant thoughts in the assumption no one will notice and instead art was made from them i don’t know how to describe the feeling even in floundering verse […]
i only drink salt water the only things i need to replenish are tears and sweat save the desalinated water for those that deserve it only eat food past it’s expiration date no point in fresh i like meal worms nutritional value through the roof i scurry from the light you shine like a cockroach […]
i put myself up for sale on ebay fully functional human replicant some assembly required will to live not included weird motor sensory glitch thinks words sing to him hard factory reboot recommended full system wipe suggested always a surprise when turned on some scarring came that way not self induced *may in fact be […]
i’m in the mood to burn it all down set it on fire and run away a villa in mexico maybe sipping sangria with senoritas farm agave and make my own tequila blanco diablo distillery guarantee dysentery to the first ten thousand customers not feeling the happy side of the street lately someone ground up […]
good night world nestled in my lion blanket head pounding like ryo fukui on the keys here’s to sleeping through the night not waking ten times to the harsh light of emptiness filling the room to not remembering my dreams just floating weightlessly in the aether suspended by gossamer threads leaving this frail form a […]
it’s dead it’s dead they came in screaming tears falling down their cheeks what’s dead i asked sure i didn’t care but feigning interest is polite they slobbered onto one another’s shoulders weeping like howling tempests creativity they shout it’s dead i sat back tapped out a cigarette from the crinkled pack and lit it […]
she bought me a dream catcher to hang over the bed the bed she laid in with me it was her going away present to me i didn’t know she was taking a trip so i hung it over the head board right above where she used to grab and shake it until it seemed […]
phone’s going dead little red lights blinking think it may be connected to my heart the voltage slowly leaking i don’t know what’s left to say so fuck it fade away i don’t know what’s left to write sailing on through the night the little red lights blinking says the dreams are getting weak tossing […]
he’s angry doesn’t want to work with anyone else forced to work with me and i’m suffering from his lack of willingness it’s hot in here the stifling heat and oppressive silence it’s beating me and i don’t like it one bit i’m stressed out it wasn’t what they sold me on but i need […]
every car in the road was red at first i didn’t notice did i wake up this morning or is this a simulation am i in bed curled up next to her sleeping peacefully sated after a night of lovemaking and writing not on site at a job i hate already coated in sweat why […]
i just like to write i don’t think i’m all that good but i still do it sometimes it just takes a muse to make bad poems seem good sometimes restrictions like when you limit yourself with syllable count i prefer tanka for that or haiku if it says fuck strips away the trash no […]
i’m broke like broke broke the last job didn’t pay for the last two weeks of work and expected i would hang around patiently patience is a virgin and i haven’t been one of those in a long time from my first taste of that sweet bud i knew i was hooked before then i […]
she stared deeply into my eyes and whispered i love you i shook my head sadly and turned to walk away why do you think you love me she held my shirt sleeve preventing me from leaving forcing me to stay i fell in love with your words your hurt you are broken but i […]
tightness in my chest my lips feel numb my left arm is tingling dizzy sweating can’t catch my breath am i live writing a poem about having a heart attack or is this stress induced barely slept kept waking acid reflux all night long i just want to lay down and sleep but another nine […]
dreamt a dream where a dream came true and as the dream came true a former flame did her best to burn it down when the alarm went off i fought responsibility to stay and see where it would go but then woke up less than awake with this aching ache now i want to […]
i’ll hate myself later for this wake up in a traffic jam of self denial and despising the reflection staring back with bloodshot vacant scars slivers of mirrors where my eyes vacated the building but that is later for now let me stare at you drink you in like i have the shakes and salt […]
it takes one of two things to be a poet you are either broken or talented it’s rare to see both at the manic word depot it’s about broken but i read others and the beauty it permeates the words i wish with all my soul i could do that but my broken always colors […]
woke up with acid in the back of my throat my uvula dancing in the bubbling liquid stress of bad delusions bad mental health bad options spent so many days looking for silver linings i forgot what it means to be me there are none if things are looking up i’m most likely hanging upside […]
i asked her to undress slowly. she cocked an eyebrow and smiled, i sat back and prepared for the show. she loves how much i love her, the hunger in my eyes as i watch her do even the most mundane things, she feels like the goddess she has always been she smiles and stretches, […]
ladies and gentlemen thanks for stopping by the manic word depot the poet illterate is taking a much needed vacation he won an all expenses paid one way ticket to rock bottom a much needed relaxing trip in the bubbling pits of doubt and sorrow you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay […]
sometimes i look for a camera behind the picture frame this can’t be my life i fell asleep and woke up in the twilight zone as i slept rod serling came out and introduced my episode tonight we take all happiness and joy away from this man when he wakes up everything good will be […]
Mike's Manic Word Depot 