Mike Zone is the Editor in Chief of Dumpster Fire Press, the author of  Shedding Dark Places (almost), One Hell of a Muse, A Farewell to Big Ideas and Void Beneath the Skin, as well as coauthor of The Grind.  frequent contributor to Alien Buddha Press and Mad Swirl. His work has been featured in: Horror Sleaze Trash, Better Than Starbucks, Piker Press, Punk Noir Magazine, Synchronized Chaos, Outlaw Poetry and Cult Culture magazine.

The truth of it all

We were taught to look into the beauty of the mind
when beauty faded tarnished by misdeeds and haunted projections…
oh, how we kissed upon the dunes
as you giggled over my joke
about watching the submarine races
though after the coldness
along with the war of being
of what we were
on this dead red October night
I truly wish two nuclear titans had met each other
underneath that damn narcissistic lakeshore

Howl for me

The wolf is dead
a line inspired by some Detroit badass graffiti 
the line is more fitting this time, no?
not so rogue any more, or are you?
tried putting me through the grinder with your wildflower hell goddess
venomous mouths
lack of wits
drowning in cheap booze
I tried to make amends
you made a joke about my dead child
nothing but a wild stray dog
staring in dirty urine filled puddle
man bites dog is nothing new
crawl into a flaming dumpster
where you won’t rise a phoenix
multidimensional or not

Give away yourself

I saw Artemis in the shower
flaming palm tress
I wasn’t sure what she was 
with a lack of hunter-prey
sacred white fawn 
drinking from a crystalline brook
funny the things we witness outside gas station bathroom nights where the divine and mystical meet at the hazardous crossroads with beings ground in time and dirty space
of course I didn’t approach
too many dogs
scratching and bleeding
sensory overload from the central aired chaos