John Tustin
He has taken her from me, for himself –
Through threats that play upon her fear
In this life, of this life. Threats to last a lifetime.
How I pity him in his victory and her in her choice.
He cannot truly possess her except with proximity
Unless a more complete possession were to become her actual desire.
When this life has ended for the three of us
If there is a way for her and I to be together
She would surely be extricated if I were to still want her –
If.
I don’t find solace in this fact just as
I don’t feel anything but sadness and loss
And would feel this even if I believed it would be a surety in a life after this one.
If we are to still be us but without flesh, bone, time, even consciousness
After our bodies become just earth
I will still feel the same sadness and loss in the new place as I feel here now in this room.
I will pity myself just as I have pitied him.
I will pity her as well if she comes to me in the next place
And extends herself metaphorically toward me as if to embrace me
Because he can have her in the next place as well.