poultry.*

[lingeringviolet]

I received this poem in my inbox this morning from the Poetry Foundation and I really liked it so I thought I'd share.



For the Tattooed Man by Sharmila Voorakkara

Because she broke your heart, "Shannon"'s a badge--
a seven-letter skidmark that scars up
across your chest, a flare of indelible script.
Between "Death or Glory", and "Mama", she rages,
scales the trellis of your rib cage;
her red hair swings down to bracket your ankles, whip
up the braid of your backbone, cuff your wrists. She keeps
you sleepless with her afterimage,

and each pinned and martyred limb aches for more.
Her memory wraps you like a vise.
How simple the pain that trails and graces
the length of your body. How it fans, blazes,
writes itself over in the blood's tightening sighs,
bruises into wisdom you have no name for.



It also came with this little blurb by Ted Kooser which irritated me:

"Among young people, tattoos are all the rage and, someday, dermatologists will grow rich as kings removing them from a lot of middle-aged people who have grown embarrassed by their colorful skins. I really like this poem by Sharmila Voorakkara of Ohio."

You know, because everyone who gets tattoos are drunken college kids who do it on a whim. *eyeroll*



* I totally stole that from a lovely little tree.

Comments

[aikea-guinea.livejournal.com]

I liked the poem.

(I'm getting my first tattoo in a few weeks, and I'm certainly not a young drunken college student.)

[lingeringviolet.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked. And yay for new tattoos! Have you chosen the design yet?

[aikea-guinea.livejournal.com]

I have indeed. My tattoo artist fixed it up just a bit, and it's so much more than I could have hoped for. This is something I've wanted since I was 15 or so, and in the last two years it's really solidfied. I know I'm ready for it.

[lingeringviolet.livejournal.com]

Wow, beautiful. What are the little red lines that run through the middle? I can't make out what it's supposed to be. (I have vision troubles that's why.) Which came first, Tristan or the tat?

[aikea-guinea.livejournal.com]

The red parts are ribbons. ^_^

As for which came first, 'Tristan' has been around for as long as I've wanted the wing tattoos, but he didn't have them until three years ago.

[lingeringviolet.livejournal.com]

D'oh, ribbons. Silly me. Does the tattoo as a whole have any special meaning for you? (Besides having them in common with that lusty vamp of yours hehe)

[tree]

Among young people, tattoos are all the rage

oh for fuck's sake. i don't know who ted kooser is, but clearly he's an idiot.

people say similar things about body piercing too. and i just want to say, yeah, all those tribal peoples who've been engaging in body modification for hundreds of thousands of years. what posers.

i know, i know, preaching to the choir. ;)

(don't worry, i stole poultry from my shakespeare professor!)

[lingeringviolet.livejournal.com]

Well, according to the email, he was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004 - 2006, which makes him no less an idiot for what he said, but at least now you know who he is.

Speaking of body mods, a certain tree has a birthday in the not too distant future. I wonder what she'll pierce this year. Oh wait, didn't you tell me you were thinking about more ink instead? Decided on anything?

(If sharing is caring...then stealing is feeling?)

[tree]

O RLY? well he's still a dumbhead.

i'm still wanting to get my zodiac signs on the inside of my wrists. but we'll see how the money goes. and the books with the sexy librarian ;)

[lingeringviolet.livejournal.com]

whoa there, missy! why was i not told there would be sexy librarians? whatever it is, count me in.

[tree]

i thought i had told you? i want to get a stack of books with a sexy librarian lady sitting on them. with glasses. and red hair. :D

[celtile.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Tatoo's. You need to ask an old friend of mine about tatoo's. He woke up one morning in Istanbul will a wicked burning sensation on his ass. In the mirror were an eye tatoo'd on each cheek, one winking.

He's now the MD of a very large multinational software company, much respected. If the people that grovel in fear before him only knew....