#enjambment
can you hear me?
now that I'm quiet again?
I do it over and over
over
come over
please come over
you
in arms
hold you
sleep in arms
let me hold you
let me sleep in arms
please come over
let me hold you
let me sleep in arms
whisper words
through a closed mouth
touch a finger
to my wrist with a feather
give me a reason to stay
stay
come, stay
please come, stay
stay here
while I forget you
the memories etched
in cold, gone, hard
rock that's crumbling
can you see me?
now that the wall is fell?
Mar 26
Mar 26, 2026 at 7:14 PM UTC
when the paper needs to fit in a metaphor
the meaning becomes subtle enough
it breaks all movement of the mouth
but the words never leave
never leave...
it could be a Billie Jean of the century
she cries wolf towards the moon
moon,
and the men hear with their children
and become afraid and accusatory
of the lover and his son
and sun?
but the words never leave
the meaning becomes subtle enough
words enough?
it breaks all movement of the mouth
when the paper needs to fit the metaphor
(fit!)
it can be the Riding Hood of the past
she sighs at the wolf's sharpening
and the pack will hear with their stomachs
will hear?
and they become hungry and sore
of the girl and her love
her love
the meaning becomes subtle enough
when the metaphor needs to fit the paper
it breaks all movement of the soul
but the words never die
(die!)
Mar 16
Mar 16, 2026 at 11:39 PM UTC
lately i have been yearning for
all that is old and to help with
that i wear my thrifted sweater
it has no tags and
has been worn (by someone)
down (by someone)
maybe it has been
taken off (by a lover) i
think about how maybe it was
softer then i think about careers
i could never have
now i think about radio stations
that could ever
be convenient i think
about writing for
movies for poetry magazines
now to work for my own
enjoyment i think about not being
reliant on something that does
everything and nothing
for the earth to keep spinning
cycling around the sun
is all it has to
do i think about my
red sweater softer on
someone else who
was an artist and did not
feel so threatened?
Jun 5, 2025
Jun 5, 2025 at 10:57 PM UTC
the flower has eyes
and she watches
as her pale petals curl and
turn brown on the edges, she
watches as she wilts, as her leaves
start to dry, she watches
as the parts of her she used
to admire start to fall, piece by
piece, and she watches as she
disintegrates,
becoming the dirt and she watches as
the housekeeper sees her and frowns and
then throws her away into the
trash.
she watches as she becomes
trash.
and she cannot save herself.
Feb 23, 2025
Feb 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM UTC
He wants her
to smile.
He wants her
to be calm.
He wants her
to be happy.
He wants her
to enjoy life.
And he wants her,
and only her.
He wants her
to be his wife,
But the two can't
go together,
And he needs her
to be fine.
May 2, 2019
May 2, 2019 at 9:50 PM UTC
The opposite of end-stopped
Poetry; the trick with enjambment
Is to never complete a sentence, phrase, or thought
Within a single line of verse; but instead allow
The syntactic unit to run on
Unexpectedly, like a distracted self-drive tourist
Attempting to navigate a multi-lane freeway
Without indicating
Dec 26, 2018
Dec 26, 2018 at 6:36 PM UTC
Barnaby hands me my daily
cup of coffee, but this time, it's night
time, and the coffee reminds me of the war
but not the allies annihilating the Germans or Japanese
but the war between me and him every time
he confesses his love to me, the words pierce
through my heart
I will never love him as much as he loves
me, I'm disgusting
like the taste of the coffee
just beans in water.
Jan 11, 2018
Jan 11, 2018 at 5:24 PM UTC
Dis ease
It seeps beyond your body
Into our shared lives
Makingsimplethingsdifficult
We are in a
L o n g g o o d b y e
Embrace
I want to hold you, push you away
Arguments
Your tongue liquid in your mouth
You convinced you said mortgage
Me convinced you said month
Communication
Copulation
Caring
Down
The
Commode
We are in a
L o n g g o o d b y e
Embrace
I want to take your disease, dis ease, and swallow it
It
Eats
You
Instead
Apr 22, 2017
Apr 22, 2017 at 5:11 PM UTC
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
Sep 20, 2016
Sep 20, 2016 at 11:27 PM UTC
I keep the tears in my head just for the night.
It's past the hour to be sad and I might
Feel the urge to set them free another day.
So I seal them tight, quite tightly away,
Until the time returns again for salt
To run and burn my cheeks because
This bucket of mine has a lot of leaks.
I can't seem to patch them up well
Enough to hold the product of those sixty minutes,
So the bucket swells and overflows its lip.
It's why my thoughts tend to slip, I think,
The days too long for just one hour,
That time spills and becomes a scattered shower
Full of my ills and my unpleasant days.
Jan 19, 2015
Jan 19, 2015 at 10:55 PM UTC
Can't you see how
it's a long way
down
from the haunt of the
stars stop shining
when you shut your eyes.
I sometimes
break my lines
blur between happiness
and being awake I
can barely feel anything
when you speak.
It's not quietude, nor
speechlessness it's
the way my mind grows
into a cancer of memories-
how one potentially harmful
dies everyday like clock-
work can't make time
stop the way you
do.
I break between
my lines some-
time pours into your eyes.
We can speak in fine tongues
and drink wine older than our hours
but when it comes to you I
let my tongue tie
itself in a knot.
I tend to
break into my lines
which is why you could never
know that after I said I love
you never came.
Dec 27, 2014
Dec 27, 2014 at 9:58 PM UTC
My father is a lion with his mane cut
and slicked back, learning to walk
on hind legs, back arched high.
~
My mother has a wolf in her chest
howling for light, for the
lantern hanging in the sky.
~
My brother has a cage
for ribs
but so do I.
~
I am a wild safari:
a bathing elephant, a sleeping
tiger, a brilliant peacock fanning its
feathers, waiting to
**** its head and release
a warrior cry.
Nov 24, 2014
Nov 24, 2014 at 8:40 PM UTC
what i find so
fascinating about you is that
you never seem to start or
end where you are supposed
to. no, you have your own
pauses and stops, and the
more i try to follow
you, the more confused i
get. is there any pattern or
sequence to you that i can
decipher? is there
a glitch in your equation which i
could probably unscramble? believe me. i find
that you are more beautiful in your
insistence not to be understood. i liked that
about you, as that tells me i don’t
have to struggle so hard. but, baby,
i still want to try. let me still
get my paper and pencil out to attempt
to solve you, like that algebraic equation
i can’t seem to ever get right. honey, i am
not giving up on you, the same
way i got headaches over those questions that
tested the logic out of me, eventually leading
me to ask whether i was really intelligent enough to
figure something out. but even then, even when
i am out of my zone and completely
uncertain, i will still follow this
fascination through. who
knows, perhaps, eventually
i will find the right spot, the precise
timing, the exact
variable needed to complete the solution to
us.
for j.e.
111814
Nov 18, 2014
Nov 18, 2014 at 9:46 AM UTC
Activate prior knowledge,
like a tumor that resembles
a painting of Churchill,
circumlocution
more like an echolocution…
or is it echolocation,
perhaps electrocution?
The sigils of universal coincidences
have finally revealed themselves.
They’re aligning for you
right this very second.
A hair from your head
laying in the bathtub
that reminds
you of a letter
from a long forgotten
language.
A random pattern of a scratch
on your arm from a outstretched
coat hanger in a department store.
An odd configuration of blood
on your arm after you dispense
a pesky mosquito.
A rorschached blob of a condiment
on your favorite shirt.
It’s out there trying to tell
you something very important.
There.
In those things lies the truth.
As much as you don’t want to
believe in it…
As much as you want to
deny it.
It will not live
up to your
memory of it later
on.
Jul 10, 2014
Jul 10, 2014 at 5:50 PM UTC