Mike Zone’s poetry is bold, visceral, and unapologetically experimental. His work fuses raw emotion with surreal, often chaotic imagery, creating a unique voice that resonates with defiance and honesty. Themes of identity, pain, rebellion, and resilience run strongly through his verses, reflecting both the struggles and the strength of the human condition. With unconventional rhythms and stark intensity, his poems provoke reflection while capturing beauty within disorder. Zone’s writing leaves a lasting impression of raw truth and artistic daring.Today we will read his four poems.
Nemesis Reflection
Angel, angel
What have I done?
Forced in the all the ways I rather not be
Fearfully breathing lies
lack of sleep
unable to cross the river
gonna climb into that sun
to be with you
Violence
Violence in the homes
Violence in the streets
Violence in the family
Violence at work
Violence, violence, violence
Nowhere to dream
in daytime neon-paint pastel draped nightmare
source mouth
she tells me
to remove
an eye
to stop catching fish
there are no ideas
nor daydreams
to deviate
from it all
Violence in your mind
Violence upon your body
Ashes on the skin
blood on the mouth
sun-baked nocturna
violent messiahs perpetuate
Violence across the globe
Violence in the oceans
Violence upon the planet
Violence in economics
Violence in the mind
Violence in the blood
Mass psychosis
trigger
implode
Violence on the soul
Violence in sex
Violence in love
Violence in peace
Warned of a “quiet world”
when empathy weeps and withers…
Violence in the air
Psychopathic treachery screams in the absence of bird-songs
Violence in upheavals
Violences in collisions
Violence in convulsions
After-birth
Non-violent renewal
Angels burning
The angels are buring in the city
or is the city burning?
The city of angels in which angels are alleged to reside
halos broken
wings clipped
demonize those eating trash can meals
discarded cigarette butt deserts
“sell ya’ a pound or give ya’ a pound
for some food
maybe a drink
anything organic
or chemical
to kill
the pain”
The flesh machines plead
Blackbirds in formation mimic newstime drones
recording patterns
only stars matter
fallen, rising
stagnant
slinking inside
celebrity skin
the only stars that matter
no matter
the burnout
fault in the stars of others
fault-lines in our stars
not for the privileged to ponder
while doing right
sometime wrong
abide the rules
the right way
there are no guarantees
but a “fair shot”
rigged aplenty
abide by the rules
the not-so secret menu
where corruption reigns
voices from the fire rain
burning, burning, burning
to discard some flesh is to discard all flesh
to sear humanity is to sear the earth
a melting pot of interspecies horror
in the mind’s eye
attempt to grasp
angels and demons of all sorts
a grotesque mass
internally imploding
melted pornographic abomination of organic matter meshed with steel and concrete fused with ecological flames, nuclear war
heaven falters
on this interstellar island earth
the city of angels is everywhere
across country, across world, across minds, across the universe
a cross
exactly
right
here
to be bared
by everyone
including you
there was a “we”
it was always mostly- “they”
red hot/red alter comedy
ashen tragedy
skeletal remains
illustrate extinction drama
perhaps I’ll smoke a bowl
and ponder it all
seen as a holy wood myth
in which no flesh
shall be spared
in this sprawling all-terrain global cityscape of angels
Half-ass apology
I’m sorry for the ramifications of my actions
Though justified
(in my eyes)
with the exception
of showing my dick
to Timmy Cauliflower
but you…
secretly liked it
setting it all ablaze
daddy issues
sitting alone
the fires of youth
sending failed seven nation armies
wax wings melting
close to the sun
primates crashing
hard
love like a hole
your house always felt like a corpse with the insides taken out
no exit
Mike Zone is the Chief Operator of BIONIK PU$$Y. The former Editor in Chief of DUMPSTER FIRE PRESS. The author of over a dozen books of poetry and fiction: SKULL MY DAISY, FUCK YOU: A FUCKING POETRY CHAP, SHEDDING DARK PLACES (almost) & THE EARTH WAS SHAKING FOR DAYS. Along with co-authoring RAZORVILLE with fellow poet and publisher Shannon Lynette. His work has been published hundreds of times being featured in: MAD SWIRL, FEVERS OF THE MIND, BLACK SHAMROCK, FIXATOR PRESS, HORROR SLEAZE TRASH, PUNK NOIR, A THIN SLICE OF ANXIETY, RYE WHISKEY REVIEW and CULT CULTURE MAGAZINE. He scrapes by in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
