The tears as you leave are a blessing
the feeling of sadness a gift
For many don't have ones to love them
or pleasant sweet sorrow so swift

I couldn’t

be further from the truth now even if I tried.
We broke up

on Sunday and one week later, C tells me that a moon is now

orbiting her planet.
When we were young, I would always complain
that she was growing faster

my breath was taut
the rain was enraged
and the car was thick
and she had thought it through.

and on Night One I drank
myself from Tiny Beaches
back to Toronto
in my mind
to see you

and on Day Two, C swelled
at the sun and I remembered
our summers lining Queen Street
to see famous faces in June

and on Night Three:
a strummed aria,
twelve cigarettes,
mason jar tears,
warm bodies
and bear rugs.

C was too tired to drive home
the apathetic sun
and foreign limbs pressing
behind her eyes.

Our family got the news today
Our bubba's gettin' hitched
Young Daisy Mae, she's near fourteen
Got our boy bewitched
He's sayin' that he loves her
He's making her his bride
She's the first to get him this close
Though not too many tried

We've got to get things ready
Send invitations and make candles
We've got to get the good jars out
The one's that still have handles
The minister is on alert
We've got to make some shine
Grandpa says he'll make some up
But, it will not all be mine

Gonna have a wedding, a real old fashioned bash
With all sorts of kissin cousins drinkin from their secret stash
The food will be impressive, there'll be turkey, pig and cow
The family won't get bigger, since we're related anyhow

This time there'll be no shotgun
Like the last time for old Ben
This time the guns are empty
Not the way they were back then
The banjos will be tuned up
There'll be music in the air
The cops won't try to stop it
I think most will all be there

The ladies will be planning
Just how to serve up all the grub
While Bubba has to find a suit
And therein lies the rub
He's never worn a suit at all
Not even for a day
He's only dressed in coveralls
And that's how he's gonna stay

Gonna have a wedding, a real old fashioned bash
With all sorts of kissin cousins drinkin from their secret stash
The food will be impressive, there'll be turkey, pig and cow
The family won't get bigger, since we're related anyhow


It'll be a **** dang doodle
A hell of a good time
It'll only be completed
When they run out of the shine
there'll be singing and some dancing
Underneath the harvest moon
We can't wait for it to happen
It cannot come too soon

There'll be readings from the bible
Which the minister will read
And as good holy Christians
Everyone will heed
There's sure to be some fighting
Before the couple say "I do"
I mean, they are both cousins
I'm gonna go...aren't you?

Gonna have a wedding, a real old fashioned bash
With all sorts of kissin cousins drinkin from their secret stash
The food will be impressive, there'll be turkey, pig and cow
The family won't get bigger, since we're related anyhow

The coffee machine likes to tell my little cousins to curse at their parents.

         Then their parents always blame me.

         I swear it was the coffee machine.
        
         When was the last time I made coffee?

'As toddlers we sat on that
timber floor, playing like wolves.
You tugged on my collar,
lifted my chin and made a promise
that we would be brothers
till death did you part.
But death didn’t do a part
in breaking up our pack.
Throughout the years you taught me
how to hunt and gather
my props, you taught me
how to front and swagger,
you wanted me to be at my best
before you left. But you never told me that
you had to leave.
Then when you started to stray, I tried to trail
your footprints, thinking that you were just
past that tree line waiting for me to catch up.
But the farther that I went, the farther
we grew a part. I can forgive you
for never giving me a warning
but those years that I fought
as a lone wolf still haunt me.

© Matthew Harlovic

Sitting inside the oven’s lower drawer
Between the cake molds and over the cookie sheets
His laughter is laced with bubbles.
No one knows why sitting inside a drawer is so fun.
I’m standing near the kitchen door
Admiring his imaginative game.

The toddler studies the situation closely
His raspberry lips contort in a pensive pout
Patches of gold hair stick out from the back of his head
Like a crown fashioned in a very different land
Where the cake molds and cookie sheets are lucky.

Lucky they have such a terribly beautiful king.

The human is a whole and the whole is in parts
The whole is for God and for you it is in quarts
A quarter you can keep, and the rest give away
The half and the quarter that are left mustn't stay
The half you should save for your better part
So that leaves a quarter for me and my heart

What makes me believe I'm your quarter, you ask
Well something has to account for
Those half unfinished sentences finished by me
Those half erupted laughters joined by me
Those half-hearted secrets whispered to me
And those half eaten rolls and the half drunk juice

You see, I deserve a half but I'll settle with a quart
Because, well I just remembered the 20 rupee note
And the 2rupees returned ignited in me
The generosity you may expect only from your Quart.