Best Poems Written by Tyler Rukstales

An Outsider Drawing a Wide Berth around a Playing Field of Rye

73 years ago 
A kid my age steps off a curb.
And, in the motion of falling, he believes he can reach heaven.
He has the thoughts of someone 
with an inverted ribcage
And he’s sick on cigarette smoke and hypocrisy.
A kid my age, 73 years ago, calls me a pervert.
Through the thin veil of time and space 
We lock eyes.
I say “I see you.”
He says “You’re sick.”
But that’s wrong and he knows it.
I am not the sick one.
He is the kid with the killing hat
And the giving hands
That despise the people he gives to.
He is the kid with filthy thoughts and phony smiles
Who sees the hollow spaces between his ribs
In the innocence of a child’s eyes.
And despite the filth beneath his tongue 
And the alcohol stinging his throat
I cannot bring myself to 
Feel anything for him
other than
Pity.

Copyright © Tyler Rukstales | Year Posted 2025