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Monday, February 1, 2010

I have a tattoo of you in my heart



I have a tattoo of you in my heart-
no one else can see it,

but it's right there on the inside.
If I concentrate, I can almost feel it:
A peculiar raised rawness,
like a cattle brand might leave;
the nerves all burnt and exposed,
as if singed by a sadistic cigarette wielder.


Funny thing is, I don't remember signing up for a tattoo
Though I do recall a lot of pain, one night;
remember thinking, I wasn't going to make it
through till the sunrise;
doesn't the worst pain always come
in the blackness before dawn,
and I was surprised to find
I'd survived the worst of it.

But now that I have your sign inside of me,
the bar code of independence is void,
as if my soul had been sold;
and nobody ever comes around me now-
how useless can one human being become,
and still go on existing?

I think of it now as a kind of failed science experiment;
for even lab animals are painlessly destroyed,
when their usefulness has reached an end.
But human beings must suffer through
to the very end, of their religion's required martyrdom-
And you are so heartless, my faith of one.

3 comments:

  1. Hmmm...I wonder if I subconsciously stole the line "Love is a deep bruise of the heart" from the words in this poem. Please don't call your lawyer, we can work it out.

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  2. Some wounds do leave their indelible mark. I'm constantly surprised that one still goes on existing. This anguished cry speaks the words of many fellow sufferers.

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  3. I felt my way through this poem carefully....wondering all the way if you are experiencing such a good thing that won't flower fully or a bad thing that just won't go away...whichever it is it made for a fabulous poem that resonates whith everyone who had truly loved anyone and had the character to never back up from their own heart. That anyone soldiers on from here is the picture of courage so I bow a deep and true asian bow, my friend.

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