he was trapped in an invisible box his smile was painted on but the terror in his eyes was real contagious he pulled out something from his pocket a pistol i watched in horror as he screwed a tube onto the end he looked at me with sorrow on his face silently pounding a fist […]
her smile is like the hollywood sign bathed in starlight on the hills there is promise hidden within of happiness sheer and free in the loving embrace of fondest wishes granted
if the world is an aquarium i hide in my castle every single time the treasure chest opens with fat bubbles the diver waves but i wonder fearfully what lurks behind the great brass dome of his through the water he bobs on the recirculated water a remnant of olden times ancient exploration part of […]
the conductor stands solemnly waving his baton to guide the orchestra unaware he is supposed to watch the tracks the train speeds down he is god awful at his job but just inebriated enough to not give two shits about anything but the second chair clarinet hitting off key notes you can’t argue with a […]
i traced her body with my mind so many times i knew the city i drove through like the back of her legs the country roads like the curve of her hips the neighboring hills like the swell of her breasts she had unwittingly become the atlas i carried to find my through the confusion […]
her love was the shadow of a squirrel flitting amongst the branches of the imaginary forest in my chest neither of us understood that but we laughed when i said it then proceeded to make love in front of the fire
always felt secure in my insecurities obscure in my security blanket confined in my straight jacket and adjacent to my emotions now i feel blanketed in her affection in surrender the power is all her’s which leaves me at her whim wind chimes before her gale force majesty to be loved or left depends on […]
we’ve crossed the uncanny valley moment where i can no longer tell satire sarcasm and actual news apart i cannot distinguish hilarity from idiocy reason and logic have become road markers fifty or so exits back
i saw a starfish on the beach the other day it asked me if i could set it back into the water i did as it asked the tide came washed him back to the sand he asked again i tried one more time only to see the tide bring him back out to the […]
every time the call ends i feel the phantom limb of her smile upon my mind for half an hour after nothing can erase the image of her lips upon mine then the dull pain of missing her settles in alas i pray to sleep if only to see her in dream
life is like your first car as the miles add up the wear and tear sets in the new car smell fades as the engine requires more and more to turn over in the morning death is the wrecker with the flashing lights circling the block waiting patiently like a panther in the tree for […]
if i were half as clever as the title this would blow your mind so i tossed a sheet of paper into a box and said fuck it it’s brilliant or garbage the world will never know
she smiled said watch i can do a magic trick i shrugged disillusioned with illusionary tactics she grabbed the broken bits from my mind and chest placed them in a top hat waved her magic wand leaned forward and kissed me gently just like that presto like the breaks had never occured i took a […]
the clowns paint their lips with pomegranate juice tears roll down through thick white makeup the ringmaster sits the king of dying dreams his paper crown wilted like the blossom of a rose in the endless heat of summer his throne a folding chair speckled with rust the elephants limp painfully skeletal with gaunt eyes […]
counting the seconds until home comes to me she sleeps as day breaks over me it just makes sense that everything is backwards
i have spent my entire life not seeing myself but the monster that was beaten into me from childhood listening to the voice in the back of my head that said i can’t i’m not good enough why bother the face that scowled back in the mirror the self hatred that whispered in the night […]
my sternum has the words in case of emotion break stenciled upon it inside you’ll find a dusty note with the sloppy misspelled writing of a younger me abndon all hope ye who entr hre in hindsight it seems the safest thing to have done
i want to cling to your skin in the same way as that summer dress every inch every curve beneath gentle hands hungry mouth to drink you in like a glass of whiskey with one ice cube sweating on the bar in the humid heat of another day with the thirst of a dying man […]
my morning routine entails coffee and the sunrise the birds and the occasional squirrel planes flying over head the warmth of another texas morning baking across my half asleep skin a creature of habit this morning i missed the sunrise didn’t hear the birds no squirrel no planes the heat was from the flush of […]
i have always doubted.the veracity of my own existence then i met you now i wonder if i am just the cut up pieces of a thousand mistakes super glued and photocopied into the semblance of a real boy because god damn you are every dream i ever had then promptly forgot at waking that […]
if i have learned anything which admittedly may not be the case despite the best teachers a series of life lessons and a heartbreaking stretch of failures it all accumulates into one important message if you can find your silence deep down in the chaos of your mind listen to it it is a damn […]
i captained my vessel upon stormy seas never seeing the curvature of the bottle it had been erected within it wasn’t until long after land should have come into view i saw myself reflected back at me from glassy eyes of indignation another shipwreck on the mantle of forgotten soliloquies another sermon given over the […]
i blew a kiss to the sun asked it be delivered to your lips whispered i love you to the breeze and set it free each drop of rain was a tear shed in longing for the messages to arrive i wonder if they ever did the sun seems aloof the breeze is so finicky […]
her sadness crosses time zones to fill me with anxiety while her smile sends chills of happiness throughout my body if i could find a way to never make that smile fade to infuse her with my love at all times the world around us would transform this has become my only goal to figure […]
the sun came up but the rain kept falling this is the kind of confusion i do not need in my day
my metal limbs grow rusted as dew forms along my joints soon the sun will heat the day burning off the condensation children will crack eggs upon my skin and laugh as they fry red flashes of binary anger but faulty wires prevent speech corroded by negligence or abandoned to nature i scream in a […]
take me like the first gasp of air after surfacing from a free dive five hundred meters down consume me like lava flowing across the countryside until all that remains is ash in the wind every bit of me is yours to do with what ever you wish for your dream is my desire
who could have imagined an innocent question turns into finding the one you imagined but never thought existed that no matter how much of one another is shared it is still the brief moments without that feel like torture
it may nearly be the end of the world but she and i will spend it making love with the blinds closed some things are more important than armageddon
the loathesome poet deterred beneath the trunk of the apple tree his many missives in form of rotten fruit each sickly seed another poisonous ode to wretched insignificance the many branches hang forlornly in the willing heat of summers spent penning whimpering simpering words into the void of another existential nothing
woke up in a bathtub filled with ice a jagged incision hastily stitched together with twine where my brain used to be the dull ache is reassuring because at least i feel something other than the cold emptiness how i got here what they possibly could have wanted i can’t say because they sewed my […]
at times i feel the only beauty i have to give you is your reflection in my eyes don’t stare too deeply though the fire beneath may scorch your retinas
kombucha grimace golden light flooding fairy pink shades dance on steel gray cerulean slowly coming to life coffee drips birds as an alarm memorizing every moment while dreaming of morning in a new land
when i was in the throes of the understanding the fear of dying alone i was willing to do things that were not me to stave it off when i realized we all die alone that it is an intimate act solitary in nature but made for a crowd of one to experience i acquiesced […]
sometimes it seems prayers go to voicemail while we are stuck making do on our own in the meantime while with others the answer is immediate even if we don’t care for them nearly as much
all that remains of the evening are adding water to the coffee pot the hopes of dreaming of her smile and writing poems for the other side of the world as i sleep the main issue is the coffee still needs to be brewed the dreams are not certain and do i really want to […]
he is fresh like a newly dug grave yet weathered like the headstone beside it take two he is open like a freshly dug grave yet worn out like the body soon to fill it take three the vigor of youth has left his dessicated frame leaving only a bag of aches and bones behind […]
it was a chorus of rampantly firing firearms filling fields of fraught fear with pretentious failures flopping limply to flatten the flaring pheremonal flanks shooting straight up into the air with hats festooned with targets as wildcats chase prey across the serengeti of estranged childhood fantasies bedazzling and aloof the fish doesn’t know it has […]
onwards rolling of glorious afternoons spent in atypical joy saints and sinners walk arm in arm down the street while i drive past in a hurry to go nowhere at all
i spend so long daydreaming i assume my brain has developed chiseled definition yet when i snap out of the blissful state i find the world seems unfamiliar altogether it isn’t as if i miss that voice of impossibilities intruding on my mental meanderings but i worry i may disbelieve gravity finding myself drifting into […]
i am constantly amazed that i dreamt of you for so long without knowing you were real that you danced across my mind for years if only my imagination had been able to fully capture you as you truly are instead of the fraction of brilliance i saw then i worry i might have never […]
our eyes met for a moment at the stop light i smiled she smiled then we both stared awkwardly forward waiting for light to turn green i was just watching the sparrow dart but she didn’t know that
the day scowled at me with petulance i could only shrug back at it how could i feel bad for it starting with gazing at sheer beauty thus setting unrealistic expectations for it to chase from here on
her spirit always carried the faintest whiff of gasoline from fires she had not gotten around to set her eyes gave off flashes like struck matches sparks igniting dry kindling when she thought i wasn’t paying attention
there is an inherent beauty in the damned in the unworthy in the unclean much like purity gleams with a soft golden glow of sunshine and joy the tarnish of sin casts an equally wicked glimmer in the light of the full moon perhaps that is just the song my secondhand heart sings in off […]
hello yes, can i speak with jason sorry, wrong number she sounded sad, dejected, hopeful to be adjacent with jason but digitally challenged instead, left hanging on the tone deaf dial tone, disconnected by a matter of numerical dissention lost love, missed connection, fake number given in the heat of the one sided moment i […]
at first she had a room inside my mind cozy lined with books two bean bags where we would sit and chat before the fire soon it was a wing dedicated to her smile before i knew it the main hall had been replaced and every time i stepped inside myself she greeted me each […]
paint by numbers dyslexia, the palate doesn’t match the taste buds doesn’t match the palate of another sunrise at the bottom of the sea shanty grog scented mess palatial estates set upon fault lines undisguised cries shouted from the very nestled pit of vipers in an ancient burial ground for nuclear disasters the grand disasterpiece […]
it is my mother’s birthday today we haven’t spoke in a decade yet still i remember if that were all i could recall perhaps her i would call but in stubbornness born of self protection from the one from which i was born shall remain a cast off crucible a raised scar on soft pink […]
swimming in the amniotic probiotic stew of life before an errant lightning strike single celled orgasmic entities with single purpose single drive duality hardcoded in Jacob’s ladders of recombinant woven strands of destitute logic and demure posings pollywogs with fervent dreams of long legs and barefeet buried in the quicksand of another solemn virtue skipping […]
if they made a movie about the fool the cast would be fifty three ravens and her the director would claw his eyes out as the conspiracy of ravens sought to undo each take with primadonna antics all while she happily sketches another masterpiece on a weathered park bench under the chilly autumnal skies the […]
she sets my mind racing like a perpetual motion engine ordering chaos lining up thoughts like errant sparks in a warehouse filled with gunpowder setting off a series of explosions that rattle me to my very core all while whispering gentle words of concern at every new ear splitting chorus of need and desire i […]
the writers have tried and failed to give a definition to love of flowers and showers, sunlight and dark the moon and the stars, the tides and the land they never came close because with definition you limit, words cannot hope to embody something so freeing and pure true love, is a blessing, a cool […]
if i’ve learned anything the heron in flight is the second most beautiful thing i have seen today next to her smile both exceed my capacity for words both effortless in majesty while i would love to see that bird again her smile imprinted upon my soul
butterfly on the windshield crow in the tree duck on the log lone fisherman with orange bobber in the flooded stream prop plane lazy circles fat bumblebee dance from flower to flower a fish jumps to catch a dragonfly ripples spread the fool sits and types monarch lands on the screen casual divinity like a […]
half fulfilled in a constant state of yearning half distilled in a rampant state of wishing half concealed in a desperate state of screaming one foot straddling two dimensions nothing but a void growing beneath precariously flat footed as the soil falls into the hungry nothing insatiable surrounded by emptiness blanketed by dark thoughts here […]
afloat on a pat of butter in a pan over high heat wondering why my arm hairs are getting singed perhaps i will dissolve into the dismissal of my own misunderstandings my former obsession depression sinks her fangs into my neck again to speed the cooking time reminding me she was always the one with […]
the problem with dreams is waking alarms sound pain flares there is always something to ruin the placid state of reverie reality truth words if i could remain sleep walking for five more minutes not have this bubble burst to fall silently to the earth i will gladly accept the impact maybe the great poets […]
the needle just pops and hisses at the end of the record stuck in the dusty groove unhappy with the last song played but stuck with the memory of it into perpetuity the curtain hangs heavy in front of the stage with no one left to pull the rope no more crowds waiting in gleeful […]
the world shreds the weak grinds bone into dust leaving sinewy strands scattered across the pavement it takes and takes without ever giving back forcing us to forge through move forward push on when giving up giving in is the only acceptable alternative then something happens changes the entire game shifts the paradigm that first […]
Two slices of toast. Lightly buttered. A steaming cup of coffee. A small glass of juice. He keeps eyeing his phone. Fingers twitch with need. His face emotionless. He sits rigidly in the chair. The birds still trill a song of life and light. Another car starts. Another. He sits with trembling fingers. He swipes […]
The birds sang a sunrise affirmation from the trees and bushes. An engine roared to life with a sputter. He lay, staring at the ceiling as the world awakened around him. He closed his eyes and waited for the alarm to go off. This was his new normal. The birds, the cars, the alarm and […]
The sky was gray in ambivalence to the procession beneath. Fat drops of rain fell with abandon as the coffin was slowly lowered in the six foot hole. The world was dreary, unwelcoming to light or to color. Even the single rose, crimson petals on the dark wood, was faded in the down pour. Long […]
before i saw you you made my heart skip beats when i finally gazed upon you i developed arhythmia it is your heart beat that fills the spaces your inhale that allowed me to exhale at long last how long had i held my breath while searching it was worth every jagged ache of pain […]
sunlight filtered through coffee sorrow tinged by joy day turns into long night spent staring at the ceiling aches course like acid spikes driven deeply the dull throb of another tormented soul where does it go this endless misery when it evaporates from a host does it find another to take root within or spin […]
not sure if the words are broken or if i am but the steady trickle has been replaced by doubt doubt doesn’t do trickles it only knows how to flood
dream turns to waking waking turns to dream sleep turns to confusion in a broken kind of state rain slicked neon streets an alley in my mind each step brings my goal one step farther away let the lightning strike me the thunder shake my very core one foot in front of the other ever […]
out of sorts out of shorts short changed changed my mind minding the store storing away the insolence of another new day fumbling for the words science diction webster’s fictionary a tome of subtle lies lying here creating worlds of words as the knot in my throat the slipknot around my trachea traces subdermal hemotoma […]
the sun didn’t shine down through the leaves it went prismatic as it burst around the crystalline tools of photosynthesizing reality into palatable pieces of energy above soar winged mares of daylight personified on the breath of sleeping giants whose bones make up the mountains and heartbeat heats the cold soil the princess is in […]
huddled in a ball with my little stuffed cow it’s bedtime but neither of us feels like sleeping the ceiling seems so far away the wall is uninviting my eyes feel dry as my head is stuffed with steel wool so tired i cannot sleep so hot i feel like i am freezing come closer […]
he put his ear against her expecting to hear her heartbeat instead he heard the ocean so he pressed his lips against her instead and awoke an inferno art by me
my paper thin soul tore in the breeze of fermented failings my sense of self worthlessness seems insurmountable today i am lost, listless, languishing in lilac daydreams in an ocean of sorrow, the tides seek to pull me under but natural buoyancy keeps my nose just above the surface of foam tipped waves of heady […]
moth chewed soul like swiss cheese in the caves in the south of france brain damaged from slamming against the built in roll cage of another car crash scar tissue raises like the mountain ranges on the face of a globe in a dusty library bitterly sad like lemon rind grated on the smiling face […]
the worn out tongue of an old pair of boots left in the bottom of the closet still covered with the remains of a day’s hard work in the fields of his youth
the hounds bay at the rabbit affixed to the rail another false prophet profiteering in misery the hounds howl with drool flecked muzzles above windsor knotted ties clamoring for the scent of sense and cents and sex the rabbit runs electrodes charged stuffed with shredded dollar bills he isn’t quite sure if he is hound […]
an old shoe box filled with little packs of desiccants covered with dust like the heart of an old sailor who has forgotten the feel of another’s lips
hell is a reward for a life half lived, heaven is reserved for those who could muster enough to crawl across the finish line an amateur demonologist with a minor in third degree burns studying the affect of cages and hearts on tempered urges death is for the living while dying is sport for some, […]
everything i love is so far removed from my grasp i cling to space like a drunken astronaut untethered from his ship spiralling in the vacuum that surrounds him
fasting all day driving too fast with no brakes no breaks the only thing breaking is news of my eventual demise dem eyes that stare as i fall down the stairs laissez faire unfair the blue ribbon ceremony at the county fair prize winning whining winging it flying over the steering wheel wheels up in […]
i hope you hit your little toe on every corner that when you use the mustard bottle all that comes out is liquid same with the ketchup i hope everyone mispronounces your name and has to ask who you are every time they see you may every piece of wood you touch give you a […]
woke up with a head full of spiders, i feel them crawling about in my sinuses, spinning webs inside of my brain woke up with a soul full of maggots, blind grubs burrowing all the way down, feeding on the torments of a man gone insane woke up with a stomach full of moths, flying […]
i was half a tattered photo fluttering with no home a chalk drawing in a thunderstorm on the sidewalk a candle on the mantle near an open window struggling to burn until you i was a half finished manuscript that had been forgotten on a shelf the fading remnants of dream as the alarm clock […]
i’ve been sketching more lately trying to perfect my summoning skills upon the page bought colored pencils new paper graphite erasers everything necessary but talent if i can get the geometry just right maybe it is possible to tear an opening from here to you every sweeping line across the blank page ticks another second […]
she sleeps on a silken bed in the heart of the moon i stare into the sky to catch her errant dreams anything to be part of her mindscape even as a spectator faceless behind the scenes art by me
blurred vision aching head pulse pounding sense of dread running full speed into the glass walls of this prison, on repeat until crack form in the sheer terror of this hell, falling as shards like razors rain through the sky around me, uncontrolled descent into a decent ending for a life of wasted moments i […]
she moved with a sinuous grace one that hypnotized the unwary prey her lips puckered into a kiss that was a fatal ruse as the venom courses nothing matters anymore serpentine tongue tasting as fang pierces lip art poorly drawn by me
my brain is a raisin in the sun today, the words have squeezed until nothing is left inside my skull but the rattling of insignificance my heart stammers, my tongue twists, i am letting it all build to a stuttering climax before unleashing them on an unsuspecting world the release i require is unrelenting in […]
the world has gone quiet and i lay across the bench under the stars in the warm texas evening the light of the city washes out the milky way except for the orion and leapus and canus but i still try and play connect the dots as if the grandeur were not missing from the […]
staring at the world through an aquarium lends a distorted quality of depth and ill perceived perception every mirror i stare into is a fun house view of dysmorphia brought on by an inability to see myself through another lens i slow dance through the motions of club footed polio inflicted musculature intricately sketched by […]
i made you my emergency contact after i dreamt i was killed in an accident last night i didn’t care about my death, that is something bound to happen at some point i imagine all i could think about was you not knowing, thinking i vanished, ghosted you in the wrong way so i made […]
painting with arterial sprays, writing with ocular fluid as ink, brachial nerve, bronchial tubes, in pieces this body is art stitch me back together, in whatever form fits your mold, hack the bits you don’t want in the trash i am yours to do as you see fit, to be made to fit, in fits […]
can you drown on dry land plummet to the earth from underground soar with your feet remaining grounded run while paralyzed with inner turmoil anxiety tells me everything is wrong depression tells me it is all bad yet i cock my head towards the sun set one foot in front of the other it hasn’t […]
i am no poet i am a polecat, a pretender, a platypus jabbing himself in the side with poison barb, a placating penny store philosopher, a self plagarizing self aggrandizing self unaware, pompous prehensile tail of a writer but i am no poet i am no writer i am a wayward soul lost in the […]
she turned to me with a faint smile, trails of blood running down her chin, delight at war with discomfort in her eyes i leaned in to kiss her as she ran her tongue across bloody lips, she smelled of citrus and pennies as she gripped the sides of my face her tongue ran across […]
whisper your name into my ear so i can learn to say it with the intent of summoning you to my side wherever you may be etch your name across my ear drum so every word i hear from now until forever is colored by your presence in my mind trace your name across my […]
I. in the bloom of the black rose, left to wither on the vine, untended by hands weary from thorn pricks, crimson hints beguile the blossoming scent II. the cracked tombstone, weathered with faded carvings, the grass gone brown, plastic flowers bleached white as the bones buried six feet below III. a soft song fills […]
you glide upon wings of redemption stained black by the weight of my sins the sin eater sat with a bowl of ale and a crust of bread, absorbing the misdeeds of the dead, black teeth stained with tar from the multitude of evil deeds taken in you glide my brown eyed beauty i follow […]
floating blindly into the flash fires of eternity grab the back of my head push it down beneath the docile water lethe no coins for the ferryman no value no deposit most certainly no return from this lazy river cerberus snarls three sets of eyes follow my every move the gates of hades are locked […]
little spider on the camera done watching me watch her scurry across the smoked dome advertisement blowing in the breeze across the empty parking lot multi colored to entice overcast as the fog distorts the shape of the city into a hidden land of giants made of glass there is a grit to the air […]
i have taken the week off of writing long form stories too many ideas rattle around insufferable suffocating sensual sin drenched words poetry will have to suffice the need to spill all over the sheets of blank desire how did i live before this outlet before you a half life nothing more nothing i will […]
Mike's Manic Word Depot 