To understand anything, even yourself,
you must live with it, you must observe it,
you must know all of its content,
its nature, its structure, its movement.
Try living with yourself, all your faults,
your functionalities, begin to see that you
are not living in a static state,
you are constantly changing.
But do not get caught up in opinions,
judgments, and values.
Live with yourself.
Learn about yourself.
You must do this, in order,
to understand yourself.

© Matthew Harlovic

I cut my wrist on a blade of grass as I tried to bury the past.

© Matthew Harlovic

Ever since my birth,
her stretch marks
have caught my age
on sycamore skin.
If you were to
peel back her bark,
you could pin point
the years she spent
nurturing her saplings;
two fair oaks,
pitted like pine needles,
that ***** her fingers
every so often.
But she does not
weep like a willow,
she continues to give
her life away to raise them.

© Matthew Harlovic

Yesterday, she caught her curves
in the center of her palms.
She cuddled the skin
and coddled the effort
that she put in
to make it shrink
but she still thinks
it made no difference.

© Matthew Harlovic

I put the Matt in matter
because I believe I do
but don't tread on me
or wipe off your shoes.

© Matthew Harlovic

To the naked eye,
the beehive cluster clutches
kin of lunatics.

© Matthew Harlovic