Poetry: Selections from John Tustin

Funhouse Mirror

You may see that woman sitting in her car

Alone in the driver’s seat with her tears -

Trying to gain her composure before

Ascending the steps to a husband and children who are expecting her

 

And you may wonder who put those tears on her lovely cheeks

And I can tell you that while she cries into her compact thinking about me

It’s her and her alone who put those tears there.

I stand alone in a harvest of rain without a tear in my own eyes,

 

Imagining a single tear plopping down into her little mirror,

Making her face into a face in a cubist funhouse

And I can’t bring myself to be happy or sad

While the rain rolls down my own cheeks in abundance and another night flies away.

 

I Wish I Loved you When I Was a Boy

I wish I loved you when I was a boy.

I wish I had known better.

I wish we could go swimming at night, just us.

Shopping with you, wondering about dinner,

Knowing it will be terrific. Probably.

I wish you were drunk with me this morning.

We could have talked until the sleep came,

Side by side in bed.

Waking up next to you, not knowing if it is day or night

Would just be glorious.

I wish you could see I am still just a boy

Who smiles thinking about all our moments

And cannot stop thinking about all the moments

That will never be.

John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals in the last dozen years. For a complete list of his publication credits click here.