some-times I'll push my finger
down on my skin, my face

just to check
just to *see

My life is the stage.
The bright lights shimmering on the black gloss of the piano,
the intent audience beaming with anticipation,
the spine-tingling shivers you get when everything goes right.

I love the stage.
You leave it and people clammer about you,
force feeding you words of affection,
words of excitement,
words of belief.

No one ever wonders what it’s like when you leave the stage.
Do they really care?

A week after a show:
an army of fans.
Two weeks after a show:
they ask for you to do it again.
Three weeks after a show:
it’s like you never existed.

Is all you want from me a song,
a monologue,
a poem?

Did you ever stop to think that I’m more than just a voice,
a face,
a pen?

I feel like you think I’m a machine,
heartless,
soulless.

I am human too,
I am a pulse too,
and I am a soul too.

My life is the stage.
When I leave it,
I become my own shadow.

Matthew Skelly
October 5, 2013

When day changed to sherbert
the taste of mango slipped across my tongue
and I caught stray licks
like wet snowflakes in the summer breeze.

For a moment
no hand could touch me with that
same love;
none have since.

My hobby of sunsets and sun
rise for 15 minutes of fame--
       for staring in wonder, then
                                 fading away.

skelly*14

A Skelly with thick skin,
that's the way we grow again

How else is a skeleton
supposed to walk and grin

Together, talk and better
never seem to stop and sever

Connections

You have to open up some windows
To be present with a new borne crane

Unless you want the glass to break
Graceful in its twice over pass the lake

We fashion the past as a sacred bundle
Face it and carried even through the fumble

My tribe like fallen leaves
cast Aside

Scattered and palming shade,
last the vibe

what's left when the seasons pass my guide
Abide my tattered and clawing mass arrive

It's hard but I promise
I'm smiling behind my mask my guy

Realize nothing in a vacuum
It's an ever laced chain reaction

Why did god **** Cain and faction
Cause he wasn't able ; redaction

The burden is less
when you know how to share it

The falling of mist
Pulls back at the hips

Future proof as fallen soldierS
I'm getting the gist.

This depression gives the impression

that the expression of a burnout is…

me

living and loving intently free

prison depends on jailhouse babies and legal **** ; weee!

we must organize expression of a quantum size, to re-realize more food and supplies

its such a surprise that id be thinkin this, engineering instruments with a pnuematic hiss

geared towards the questioned technocolypse….

“…well here on the graph we read an elipse, a parabola, and a demonic kiss…”

But whats this?

im’ channeling some quick quips ; alluring as a brothel’s contained hips with the open smile of sideways lips….

my daring is preparing all the world for destructive repairing

cause the frogs and the rains are staring

at this desolate earth

a burnt out hearth

with smouldering ashes, speaking of a crying birth

while the midwife is sick and shy with little self worth and curse; because a as a witch she doth rehearse

while the moonlights smiling and the phones texting and dialing

“Whats wrong?”==”Are you ok?”

“…but come on?”==”Is there any other way?…”

[please oh please let me stay in this old and bloodied fray; where the battles had axes and handles

where there were stories of travels, to faraway places leading to exotic geographic stasis]

caught in the moment of thought, a moment of fright…

until we stop and put a light to these wierd words

we wont know what the birds have heard….

Click crshhh….*

BURN little match like the wood you are!

combustion of suggestion set ablaze from afar

a flame throwers burned hands

while the pained sower , frustrated, changes plans

because in the end one one really understands

the torment of a floment spent eternally alone in atonement.

(=purgatory)

Where all you want to do is get on the phone, external validation felt at the tone,

but it really ain’t ****

because you are crying while its dialing and your out of minutes…

so check this bits of imaginary meaning and ****

ponder and quit

when you seek to make amends and introduce fake men to our imaginary friends

i keep on thinking…keep on blinking

wishing for emotion to extend

SO I think the words

AND I write whats heard

but haven’t YOU heard

from the little ittie birdie whos been certainly flying, singing and free

that im not mentaly sturdy, quirky, and ******…

LOGICALLY

iknow

sophistry

ishow

emotionally

Hol…………­……………loW

I guess it just goes to show that when you at home your never reallly  alone, because to you, the voices do drone
about

how much sandpaintings and ***** can be blown,….

away with a CLICK…BoooM

beaten with a stick….AH

shoed a away with a kick….

START my heart! I know better than this!

so I better think quick

before i stay mentally sick

as an alien who has forgotten it’s world

got on a roller coaster; spinned and whirled

till im spun and twirl’d

on this game we call life, with simple **** and complex hype,

hives of concepts meanings and thoughts….to derive daily quit failing

i miss haley :( , even phailee….

so I ask little voice in my head , since everyone has left will you stay instead?

come a little closer and hop into bed

so we can share the warmth of one last self-referencing infinity loop….

…..BEFORE i wake up and forget whats ashore

because im out at dream sea with clouds free and galore

but as soon as i stop thinking i know ill return to the me that i abhore

with pain and saddness deranged

omit school so classless and strange

as a failed out actress sick with mange.

but i know these negatvie moments are just flashes , to make me appreciate self motivated happiness…

so here you go

its me on the page, skelly the sage….

i just hope to god that I could set the stage 4 nirvana or heaven, we reach zion in seven

6

5

4

3

2

1

I love you.

Its over

i won myself over

like a sad kids redrover

thanks for letting  m3 share these freestyle thoughts i kant bear

im  alone no more, i seem to have exhausted my sadness store

and after venting i realize…. its a lot ******* bettor.

“Isn’t it eeeire howletting yourself feel sad

can make you feel soo much better?”

(>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> <('-'<)
I COMPLETED MY MASTERS TODAY (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')>
I COMPLETED MY MASTERS TO SAY (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')>
I COMPLETED MY MASTERS TODAY.
3/6/2019 (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')>
Skelly (>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')>
(>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')>
<('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')>
^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')>
<('-'<) (>'-')>
<('-'<)

I'm trying to finish this famous contemporary poet's
fourth collection, which groans under the weight of
all the glowing blurbs on the back cover.

The famous contemporary poet avoids rhyme as if
it was a downed wire and finds form too restrictive--
hangs her skelly on a hook when she composes.

The famous contemporary poet writes a few poems,
carefully packed in vignettes, snapshots, and musings,
all the excelsior found in any packing crate.

In high school I had an acquaintance, this guy.
He'd toss out something cryptic and then wait
like he'd flipped you a Rubik's Cube.

Everything out of his mouth was a test and he'd give
you this bright smirk, like can you figure it out and
get to where I am, up here?

I would like to meet the famous contemporary poet
and show her one of mine, plain as the flat of my hand
when it breaks her nose and the blood comes.

I am trying to finish the famous contemporary poet's
fourth collection even though it's like watching a movie
with muddy sound, in dialect, no captions.