STICK AND POKE TATTOO by Lucian Mattison
He sets a black chess
rook aflame
in a ceramic bowl
stirs ashes with vodka
into homemade tattoo ink
retraces the fading
ink retraces
the faded line
a second year
of scrawl down his leg
he knows the needle point
coarse poke
like pubic hair
on thighs
cold boxcar
metal to skin
where thousand mile
paper slips
away slips away
by stick and poke
he hems
a strange curve
down thigh skin
inscribes a timeline
memory of her
hands guiding the needle
years that follow
this scar’s endless
drip blood and ink since
she last left
since she last
left he burns
a chess rook
royal into carbon
black ash ounce
of vodka its carrier
two years retracing
extending this thread
single cord pricked
down his left leg
a lifeline
a fishhook
a question mark
depending on the day
