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552 · Feb 2016
Introduction
Matthew Harlovic Feb 2016
Hi. My name is Matt.
My brain is in a vat.
I exist in the eyes
of Schrödinger's cat.

© Matthew Harlovic
550 · Sep 2016
what matters anymore
Matthew Harlovic Sep 2016
it does not
matter what
i do because
it does not
matter to you.

© Matthew Harlovic
549 · May 2016
Monarch
Matthew Harlovic May 2016
A monarch may not be able to see its wings,
but we see them, and they are a beautiful thing.

© Matthew Harlovic
546 · Apr 2016
(man)nerisms
Matthew Harlovic Apr 2016
I danced the masquerade with an alabaster mask
renounced the language like Rasmas Rask.
I basked in the both of my gender expectations,
rendered a new personal equation.

© Matthew Harlovic
541 · Apr 2015
Medication
Matthew Harlovic Apr 2015
Medicine: a metaphor
for the meta-commentary
narrating your thoughts
before you even think.
Ask your shrink,
if you think
you’re in control of your thoughts.
Temporarily you are not.

© Matthew Harlovic
535 · Nov 2016
do tell
Matthew Harlovic Nov 2016
i often wonder where the time goes
when i watch my calendar
like a slide show.

© Matthew Harlovic
and yet the show must go on.
534 · Nov 2014
Repetition - 10w
Matthew Harlovic Nov 2014
I love you* because I love you
because of you

© Matthew Harlovic
531 · Mar 2014
Carry On
Matthew Harlovic Mar 2014
Dwell not in the past
nor dwell on what is to come.
Concentrate right now.

© Matthew Harlovic
Haiku
522 · Jul 2016
kiss & tell
Matthew Harlovic Jul 2016
she kissed and told
the world my secrets,
stole my strength and
gave to me weakness.

© Matthew Harlovic
521 · Nov 2016
man made
Matthew Harlovic Nov 2016
i was fathered by time
and nurtured by nature
but man made a creator
who claims he's my savior

© Matthew Harlovic
517 · Nov 2015
Whism-ful
Matthew Harlovic Nov 2015
For the wistful youth
bitten by the wit
of the forbidden fruit
,
loose lips strip the tree of its roots.

© Matthew Harlovic
514 · Jun 2017
MUMBLE
Matthew Harlovic Jun 2017
momma said not to mumble. be humble.
keep it under your tongue - like a secret -

only seek it if your time has come.
otherwise you’ll succumb to the sequence

- as frequent as most -

weakness engulfs
those who loath
to oppugn
the approach.

i encroach upon
the broken ones
with cloven tongues
woven from hell.

i tell them when the moment comes
open your swollen gums and yell.

© ?Matthew Harlovic
506 · May 2016
Holding Up
Matthew Harlovic May 2016
The last time you called me,
you asked how I was holding up.
I said I was fine, but I should
have told you to read my page.
Since you dumped me, my thoughts
ended up here. I wish you would
scroll through my poetry, starting
with the ones in February because
perhaps then you would understand
how I was holding up.

© Matthew Harlovic
504 · Oct 2017
chemical cuisine
Matthew Harlovic Oct 2017
if you cannot read it,
you should not eat it.

© Matthew Harlovic
Aspartame, Acesulfame K, Saccharin, Sucralose
500 · Mar 2015
To Anyone & Everyone
Matthew Harlovic Mar 2015
I'm here for you,
always and forever.
Whoever you are,
wherever you are,
just know,
I'm here for you.

© Matthew Harlovic
498 · Mar 2016
Cry Wolf
Matthew Harlovic Mar 2016
I’m a cry wolf
wrapped in steel wool.
I fell head over heels
for a part of the whole.  

© Matthew Harlovic
494 · Oct 2014
Cast [kast, kahst]
Matthew Harlovic Oct 2014
Cast [kast, kahst]
1. v. To throw or hurl something; fling: We cast our desires or ambitions into a river called life. 2. v. To shed or discard: We cast away our struggles and fears which eventually subside into the shallows of our shores. 3. n. A slight trace of color; a tinge: Although the cast of the sunrise upon the river’s edge leads us to a new-fangled dawn, it takes us away from our fate set by the current. 4. n. The form in which something is made or constructed; the arrangement: The cast of the river’s scenery is stowed up as memories so we can reminisce on the features later in our lives. 5. v. To twist or turn; warp: The river casts into various routes that carry us to our travel’s end.
492 · Sep 2017
peaceful language
Matthew Harlovic Sep 2017
you organize a peaceful protest with profane language,
spitting the same rhetoric as those you care to vanquish.
i languish in sanguine spirits across all of god's creation
in the name of betterment of a solemn nation.

© Matthew Harlovic
488 · Jun 2018
poetize
Matthew Harlovic Jun 2018
when you finally saw the scars, you dubbed it as art.
i cried violently and you thought it was poetry.
you compared my mutilation to a memoir
as one of my greatest devotees.

© Matthew Harlovic
482 · Aug 2020
anchors away
Matthew Harlovic Aug 2020
I'm at one with nature
My learned behaviors
Once brought me to
A place full of anger
Love lost its flavor
When cost of labor
Cut deep like a razor
Hope was my anchor!

Lost in a temper,
The love for myself
Burned in the embers
I needed some help!
I turned to my friends
They heard what I said
The end wasn’t near
It was all in my head

Call it a figment
But who would’ve thought
A little mistake
Would leave me distraught
It seems I forgot
The cream of the crop
Can wither and rot
When the time’s not right

Caught in the spotlight
With nowhere to run
I pray, “Please God.
Help me out of this one”
I can’t see the path
You put me on
When the odds against me
Are slim to none

© Matthew Harlovic
I was built to run so I up and left in the filtered sun
479 · Sep 2017
MUMBLE pt. ii
Matthew Harlovic Sep 2017
papa said, we should never forget
where we came from
and who we came with
so I abstain from the famous.
I'll take painfully plain
over one of those faces,
painted with abrasion
so much talent is wasted
because the palette is tainted
- just for the occasion -
it amazes me how
we're lost in the matrix
because the mind plays tricks
when you toss in hatred.

© Matthew Harlovic
Matthew Harlovic May 2016
I walked through the Harrison
Street Fair earlier in the afternoon
with the expectation and angst
you would be there as well.
Much like the year before, vendors
and artists were sprawled about the
street from Cuyler Avenue to Humphrey.
Rough-and-ready goods and chattels were
perched on display, but my eyes were fixed
on the crowd. I thought I would walk into
you and your new boyfriend, but you were
nowhere to be found. Perhaps we missed each
other; perhaps you never went to the fair.
But be that as it may or may not,
I thought we would walk into each other.

© Matthew Harlovic
472 · Feb 2017
liquified courage
Matthew Harlovic Feb 2017
i'm no alcoholic,
i'm discouraged to drink
but when i drown, i think
the liquid is symbolic
for how i frolic
off the brink.

© Matthew Harlovic
470 · Aug 2016
eve
Matthew Harlovic Aug 2016
eve
i met my
better half
on adams
yet, she left
my side like
an atom.

© Matthew Harlovic
470 · Aug 2016
chalk talk
Matthew Harlovic Aug 2016
she colors the cosmos
with brushstrokes
on my brain
as acrylic paint
plunges into my vein.
did you paint me insane?

© Matthew Harlovic
...i'm drawn to you
463 · Aug 2016
Chiaroscuro
Matthew Harlovic Aug 2016
Piece by piece
the paint will peel.
Chiaroscuro,
tell me what’s real?
I touch, I cut
but I feel nothing.
In time, I’ll heal
but for now
I’m blushing.

© Matthew Harlovic
462 · Nov 2016
test of time
Matthew Harlovic Nov 2016
i'm sorry if i hurt you
but you deserve the
best and i'll take the
time to study for this
test of virtue.  

© Matthew Harlovic
461 · Jun 2018
cya
Matthew Harlovic Jun 2018
cya
I’m sorry Dad, I probably won’t be around next year.
Once I graduate I think I’m gonna be out of here.
I only say I think because I’m never really sure
where I’m going and whether I’ll endure.

© Matthew Harlovic
461 · Jul 2016
da best
Matthew Harlovic Jul 2016
through all the good times,
all the bad, all the happy
and the sad. i’m glad to say
you’re da best friend
i've ever had.

© Matthew Harlovic
460 · May 2016
Tense
Matthew Harlovic May 2016
I feel a bit tense
because my love
for you
exists in
the past tense.

© Matthew Harlovic
I loved you.
455 · May 2018
i shall not care two
Matthew Harlovic May 2018
The lights in the room have dimmed and pearled.
She’s in the mood to read some Teasdale.
I ease the ailment then appease her needs.
I open the window to let in a breeze.

© Matthew Harlovic
454 · May 2018
creation myth
Matthew Harlovic May 2018
I don’t go out
much anymore.
I sabotage dates
and relationships.
I like to tell my friends
you started all this ****
but that’s just another
creation myth.

© Matthew Harlovic
454 · Sep 2017
married to the game
Matthew Harlovic Sep 2017
rappers live alone, die alone with a microphone.

© Matthew Harlovic
453 · Jan 2019
call me
Matthew Harlovic Jan 2019
I didn’t intend for the end to come near
then again didn’t I get us here?

The man in the mirror ain’t the man he appears
He vanishes after a couple of beers

Resentment is one of my qualities
so don’t ******* expect an apology

I’ll probably waste my time all day
wishing for you to call me

© Matthew Harlovic
448 · Jan 2018
mandrake
Matthew Harlovic Jan 2018
i'm only human, so
my roots are mandrake.

© Matthew Harlovic
447 · Jan 2018
laced
Matthew Harlovic Jan 2018
when they replaced my half-torn slip-ons with velcro, i laced up.
orange jumpsuits pushed lunch trays and sized from the waist up.

© Matthew Harlovic
443 · Dec 2015
Untitled
Matthew Harlovic Dec 2015
Our Father, hails Mary,
the mother of a coward.

© Matthew Harlovic
Scrap from a journal.
442 · Dec 2017
lifeless
Matthew Harlovic Dec 2017
An endless darkness of eternal life!
I wanna hear the voice of consolation.
You forget all about internal strife,
dreaming a life without temptation.

© Matthew Harlovic
441 · Jan 2017
we woke
Matthew Harlovic Jan 2017
i woke to darkness,
alarmed by a starlet.

charmed by her starkness,
we embarked on our parlous
journey.

but have you learned we
marked our awakening

by taking the chance to dance
with a groundbreaking
circumstance?

© Matthew Harlovic
440 · Sep 2017
gaslight
Matthew Harlovic Sep 2017
i thought we had a gas
but you were right
we had a blast.

© Matthew Harlovic
kaboom.
435 · Jun 2017
peaked
Matthew Harlovic Jun 2017
i kissed the sky on a windless night
and tasted sunlight on my tongue.

i peaked on a wingless flight.
some might say i’m mystified

by the mystery of happiness and misery
so i retrace my history

to a time when i was young
and held a hunger

for the wonders of world
before i was thirsty for some girl.

sundered by the sunburns;
one learns to discern his past

and turn to the hands of time,
turning sand into glass.

© Matthew Harlovic
424 · Jun 2016
Second Guess
Matthew Harlovic Jun 2016
she loves me,
she loves me not,
she loves me
or so I thought*.

© Matthew Harlovic
420 · Jun 2018
Dear Sophie (part two)
Matthew Harlovic Jun 2018
Dear Sophie,

Most these
nights have been lonely
so I wrote these poems
in hopes that you'd phone me.
I mean, if only.
I would take your hand in holy matrimony
because you've shown me how to be myself.
I know it sounds cliche but I used to keep to myself
like one little incident and my self-esteem might melt.
But now I see myself in a greater view.
I don't beat myself up no pay-per-view.
So I have to thank you for all that you do
You lifted my spirit when I was feeling blue.
Peace to my depression like see ya later dude.
I used to be a mess but then I met you.
You swept up the pieces
when you didn't have to
and I thank you for that.

Sincerely,
Matthew

© Matthew Harlovic
415 · Dec 2017
and his eyes
Matthew Harlovic Dec 2017
and his eyes are stained with glass
shattered hopes, built to last
and his lungs are made from brass

yet remains silent during mass.
his body's a church and it's vast
and his eyes are stained with glass

watching a young, lad and lass
whom he searched for have a blast
and their lungs are made from brass

as they roll about the grass.
they fell in love quite so fast
and his eyes are stained with glass

because the two should be in class
but all of that has come to past
and their lungs are made from brass

she laughed a lot and he had a gas
he calls to God, not to pray but ask
why his eyes are stained with glass
and his lungs are made from brass?

© Matthew Harlovic
415 · Jun 2014
Adam's Street
Matthew Harlovic Jun 2014
We were walking down Adam’s bend,
stumbling on sweet nothings
that sprouted up in the spur of the moment
in between the cracks in our conversation.
That evening seemed as sweet as the
second-hand secrecy we shared.
She turned to me,  
with a bottom lip white-washed  from nerves,
and slowly asked, “Matt?”
She let a breath flutter
like those ivory black lashes,
“Should I really be doing this?”
In spur of the nerves, I laughed, “Doin’ what?”
she shyly spoke “This...”
I felt lips press against my collar bone
It was chilling. I froze up.
She kissed up my neck,
and my heart thawed.
She kissed my cheek,
and it began to drip.  
She kissed my lips,
and a note that hung on my lungs read:
“Slippery when wet”.
Alas, it lasted a couple of seconds,
with a couple of baby’s breaths in between,
but this wasn’t my first kiss.
It was my first kiss on the lips
of a woman that I knew I loved

© Matt Harlovic
413 · Sep 2016
indiana
Matthew Harlovic Sep 2016
i fell short of breath
or it fell before me
as i explored your temple
and your décor is quite lovely.

© Matthew Harlovic
412 · Jun 2017
Untitled
Matthew Harlovic Jun 2017
how could i delude someone who
put themselves through and through
black, blue and purple hues
hurtful words and the certain few
who circulate skewed conclusions
illusions and preconceptions
on the dimensions of perfection
when such a mention doesn’t exist
because tensions persist and fits
are thrown as much as fists.
i wish beauty didn’t consist
of “haves” and “have not's”
when this image is all i have got.

© Matthew Harlovic
Matthew Harlovic Nov 2017
a child becomes an early heir
when a husband hates himself.
she sits alone blinded by despair,
wishing it was someone else.

© Matthew Harlovic
410 · Nov 2016
eraser head
Matthew Harlovic Nov 2016
i write to remember all
the memories we made
because without them,
i'm afraid you'll fade
within the next decade.

© Matthew Harlovic
410 · Nov 2016
818
Matthew Harlovic Nov 2016
818
eight's a mis.
seven's a felon.
i was six feet away
from the gates of heaven.

© Matthew Harlovic
hit & mis
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