The wind expressed through dying leaves
         An overwhelming undertow a silent tide
               On the hill the girls mind has gone
                   Craving past memories burned deep
                      Desperately drowning in life's sorrow
                                See the scars in her eyes
                     The sadness she can no longer hide
              Gone are the days of 'I'm just fine'
       Now she just sits and stares
As the world goes by

i take on other people's fears
find their masks lying around
i put them on for fun

i pull threads from people's coats
make a cocoon of them
of the weaknesses
the dreads
the sadness

but why

i want to know what it feels like
want to have pity on their starving, naked souls

but they eat me alive.

let them be keepers of their own darkness
i say
let them reach to you through the prison bars, the high bars set by society that most can never grasp
but i have to take off my shawl and drape it round their shoulders

it's all that i have left

there are two sides to me
one wants to give and give
the other wants to take and keep and scowl at the rainbows as they form overhead

one loves the sun
the other wishes that the rain would stay forever

how to pull me out of myself
out of the dark abyss i've created for my soul

I shiver with pain
They call me insane
But what do they see?
Just the outer part of me?

I cannot breathe,
Because I am insane,
They just looked over
And tagged me a name
But do they see the soul my insides claim?

I do not know
If I am blind
Or if I am surrounded by blindness.

Dear World,

Today is
   The day I
      Break down the walls.

Today is
   The day I
      Breathe it all in.

Today is
   The day I
      Open my heart.

Today is
   The day I
               LIVE.

For so long
I have barricaded myself
Behind the thickest of masks,
And now it is time
For it to fall

No longer a
Nameless face,
A lost human,
A waste of space

Today is
   The day I
      Learn to fly!

                                             -Boy*



Boy,

Today is
   The day I
      Break your heart in two.

Today is
   The day I
      Let reality suffocate you.

Today is
   The day I
     Close your mind.

Today is
   The day your aspirations
                                       DIE.

For I am
To harden your heart
I will leave you rejected
With no hope
Of ever belonging.
Draw the mask
Back over your face
This is not a place
For being yourself.

Today is
   The day I
      Permanently break your wings.

                                                               -World

Once the positive trending tags
outweigh the negatives,
we’ll find continuity
within our contemplation,
our emotional state,
and our existence.
But as the negative trending tags
outweigh the positives,
our continuity will be conflicted.

© Matthew Harlovic

We have
Too much confidence for competence,
Such deliberate disguises.
Our silly grins grimly thin.
We are the hollow men,
And insidious ideals appeal
In a dream stealing spiel with zeal.
No rest for a lost boy.
This is the way the world ends;
Not with a shout but a whisper