MY MIRROR DOESN’T REMEMBER MY FACE

The mirror wants my first face back.
It knocks from the inside.
Backstage smells like old rain
and wires losing faith.
The spotlight left mid-sentence,
a warm dog choosing knees.
It sleeps on other names now;
mine cools on a hook.
My suit keeps its applause—
dust claps when I move.
A poster peels my younger grin,
glue holding better than me.
I rehearse being recognized
in windows that refuse.

My name sticks to the rim,
a print no one claims.
Chairs remember my weight
longer than any crowd.
I drink the light in bottles,
cheap bulbs with no heat.
The mirror keeps him breathing:
unspent, untouchable.
It offers him for entry;
I pay with what I’m not.
Security scans my silence,
lets brighter ghosts pass.
Even the dark edits me,
cuts scenes I can’t keep.
The mirror waits for change—
I wait while it slowly forgets me.

Tushar Sen pursues sustained creative and scholarly writing alongside his career in finance. He is the author of Pandora’s Box, a collection of short stories. In 2020, he wrote and produced a short film Zulfi, which screened internationally and received 22 laurels across 22 film festivals. His research papers have been published in the Romanian Astronomical Journal and HRC Journal of Economy & Finance. His poetry has appeared inThe Mathematical Intelligencer (Springer-Nature), MENACE, Muse India, The Orchards Poetry Journal, The Deronda Review, Flora Fiction, New Verse Review, Writers Resist, Ecological Citizen, Varnish, Afrocritik, The Road Not Taken, Sortes, Lekh, Indian Review, 4LPH4NUM3R1C, SpecPo Verse, Infocalypse Arts & Literary Magazine, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, The Gilded Weathervane, Quill of the Goddess, Twisted River Review, EgoPHobia, Well Read Mag, Rivenery Literary and Military Review.