Ramshackle Review

Humphrey Bogart

By John Tustin

For some reason it’s Humphrey Bogart I think of

because he must have looked in the mirror

and seen the pouches of age and ugliness

and the gutters of sorrow

but he bucked up and said

he has that thing that he has

and he screwed up the necessary moxie

and he got

Lauren Bacall…

so how about it?

I’ve got the eyes

and the poems

and the sad history

and the bullshit promises

and some carelessly constructed poem

about Bogey and Bacall

I wrote

while guzzling

my tenth beer

of 1/23/11.

Wink and smile.

John Tustin's poetry is forthcoming in Bryant Literary Review, Underground Voices, Chiron Review, and others. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry is a link to his poetry online.