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

Love is like liquor, it burns as it moves in.

© Matthew Harlovic

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

Prom:* the fabled dance that
every student looks forward to
at the end of their senior year
and looks back to every year.
I remember my prom,
the one I didn’t go to*
instead, I went out with
the girl that I fell for
and her younger brother
to the silver screen.
It wasn’t magical
but it was something
that I’ve remembered to this day.

© Matthew Harlovic

I'm such a loser.
I've lost almost everything
but I won't lose her.

© Matthew Harlovic

she’s no angel
nor does she have wings
but god-**** can that girl sing.

© Matthew Harlovic

I have revised love letters
to contend with the headers
to change always and forever
to thanks for the effort.

© Matthew Harlovic

As long as you
still have the will
to love again,
you will. I promise
you that my friend.

© Matthew Harlovic

i love her tender,
i hold her tinder
i told her as her
cylinder smoldered
keep the cinder.

© Matthew Harlovic

And on my darkest days
my scars seem to glow

© Matthew Harlovic

I think I'm crazy.
The space by me is *spinning,
and I'm seeing stars.

© Matthew Harlovic

i was taught to be a man
and manage my emotions,
but i wonder if i can just
get through the motions.

© Matthew Harlovic

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

rappers live alone, die alone with a microphone.

© 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

We used to celebrate the fifteenth of May
as the day we first started dating. Though
you thought the fifteenth was the correct date,
we did not start our relationship in May.
We started in June, a few weeks
after my graduation. The fifteenth
of May was the day we first started dating,
but we only dated for a week, and then
you dropped the let’s stay friends bit.  
A month later, we tried again,
and that try lasted for two years.
Perhaps the superstition of our first fifteenth
brought us to where we are, perhaps not.
But the fifteenth of May is in a few weeks,
so where are you, my friend?

© Matthew Harlovic

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

Crescent moon eyelids
flatter her milk-stained halo
is she an angel?

© Matthew Harlovic

We drove down the drunken arrow
with slack on the pedal during the steep
inclines. Roundabouts rounded out my
view of those pullman pine peaks
from what I’ve read in geography.
But what I didn’t read was the sightseer
schemes: there’s a price fix on the peaks,
there’s a price fix on air,
Mother Nature is selling
her body to the public.
If we want to pay any kind
of mind to her we need pay
up before we spend time with her.
But this isn’t how it should be,
we should be able to see her
without a cost per hour.

© Matthew Harlovic

i wish i learned how to let go from the get go
because i wouldn't have changed faces like a gecko.
her body was a temple i painted art deco,
i fell for her tempo it resonates like an echo.
i tremble at her tone yet her treble let alone
could break any heart made of stone.
she's known to play her part,
she's shown she can master it.
she hits every note,
she's dead accurate.
she's a natural when it comes to the art.
she's outsmart anyone even the likes of Descartes
and depart in the dark just to get a head start.
she's a work of art with beautiful quarks
that set apart the sharp remarks
with the monarch sparks
we shared that night we were in my parked car.
i swear you might be the most astounding star
i have ever found on my radar
but you are by far the very avatar
of a die-hard wild card.
are you barred in?
has the flower child outgrown her garden?
or were you just starving for a greater havest
when you carved out my carcass?
perhaps you're a Marxist
and my work wasn't up to par with your target market.
i thought a monarch was regarded as a god incarnate
yet your true colors were scarlet.
you weaved a web of lies like Charlotte.
have you achieved your dreams yet my darling starlet?
are you set on starring in a different light?
apart from all the starry nights, and sorry fights?
you're such a sorry sight when you hardly ever blink
at anything i say yet everything i think.

© Matthew Harlovic

A monarch may not be able to see its wings,
but we see them, and they are a beautiful thing.

© Matthew Harlovic

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

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

Knowledge is infinite, exponentially growing
We learn to live without ever really knowing.

© Matthew Harlovic

I may clothe myself,
but it is not out of shame,
it’s for the weather.

© Matthew Harlovic

What loud roar is there present in the night?
Does the bright white sheet cover all to see?
The sound does hum with constant beat and bite.
A blanket provides protection to thee.

A powerful force is blown in your face
as graceful flakes dance around your bare head.
You shield yourself against the whirling lace.
Opaque and silent it becomes widespread.

But will this unique veil protect or harm?
The delicate drops begin to push you
No strength, no power it gives you alarm
Somewhat swaddled your heart beats in rhythm too.

A cold Nor’easter gives quite a great scare.
White drifts protect all in the winter air.

© Matthew Harlovic

She loves him,
or at least, a part of him.
She does what she does,
she loves on a whim.

© Matthew Harlovic

Grudges blister hands
Leaving scars on skin like stamps
Strive for forgiveness

© Matthew Harlovic

Maybe I'm foolish
To trust the excuse
"I'm only human"
Just defies the truth

© Matthew Harlovic

the onus is on us  
so let us own up  
to love and lust  
like grownups,
in lieu of alluding
to all the secrets
we've sewn up.

© Matthew Harlovic

For every door that closes another window opens
But my momma warned me of strangers
so I latched the window shut, hoping
that opportunities wouldn’t put me in danger.

© Matthew Harlovic

Open casket—open
mind. we closed the
blinds but sunshine
slipped through
the slits.

© Matthew Harlovic

She was a walking paradox
in a pair of Doc’s.

© Matthew Harlovic

In their eyes,
retirement is more important
than college funds

© Matthew Harlovic

The past is the past
The future is the future
This is our suture

© Matthew Harlovic

It's acquiescent,
to grieve for what you don't have,
your losses will pay.

© Matthew Harlovic

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

Socrates as well as Plato have nothing on my father.

© Matthew Harlovic

I found peace of mind
the very day you gave me
a piece of your mind.

© Matthew Harlovic

More so,
race is the central
organizing principle in society

© Matthew Harlovic

So what** do you mean, you can’t take me home? Baby please don’t leave me alone (I’m lonely) and I don’t want to take the walk of shame home sober Well that’s ******’ perfect, love is such a crazy thing until you realize that it’s over. So let me let you know, that you make me sick, it’s sickening, that most girls will fall for your private show.

© Matthew Harlovic

Chitter chatter,
pitter patters
against my ear drum.

© Matthew Harlovic