tattoo

words dribble down your shoulder blade
rememberance, of something that once meant the world to you?
you tried to stop time
you put a memory on your body
but you can't see it where you put it
behind you
in the past still
not to be repeated
only remembered when someone asks
in summertime
when skin and words are exposed
what did you say and what did it mean?
who are you now and what does that verse invoke?
can you travel back in time?
to innocence?
to guilt?
to that day?
to that feeling?
to that tattoo?



(This is an actual bar napkin. I was writing about a girl that was sitting several stools away from me. She has a tattoo of what looked like a poem or lyrics on her right shoulder blade. I never talked to her. But I was curious about the tattoo. I'm sure that plenty of people have asked her about it. I often wonder how people feel about strangers asking them about their tattoos. Some are so obvious but I am sure that many others have very sentimental and personal meanings.)