it does not
matter what
i do because
it does not
matter to you.

© Matthew Harlovic

i hid cigarette
cartons from
my parents as
well as yours
because i knew
it was what you
wanted because
it was what they
abhorred.

© Matthew Harlovic

at a certain time and space,
the density of absence
threw me off my axis.
i felt like atlas,
bridging the gap between
theory and praxis, text and world.

© Matthew Harlovic

Everywhere I go
Everybody wants to know
"Where's the lady"
They all ask
I answer, hiding behind a mask
Of smiles and laughs,
And say to them:
"She's gone, she won't be back again;
I don't care"
And shrug my shoulders.
But now my life is so much colder
I walk alone, the crowded streets
And tell my tale to friends I meet
Then I turn, walk on with the truth
With tear-filled eyes
I think of you

you straddled
my mind with
the way you
drew a narrow
line between
what i knew
about you and
what i have
come to find
but you raddled
my body with
addle-brained
designs, never
once drawing
one of a benign
kind.

© Matthew Harlovic