You hear the buzz.
Your body is tense.
The needle goes in.
The ink flows.

You begin to relax.
Your mind wonders.
Black and grays.
Traditional.  Oriental.

It's mesmerizes your soul.
You are lost in the moment.
Minutes turn to hours.
It's all done.

It is there.
On your body.
For the world to see.
Permanent ink.

Razor-sharp fingernails scrape layers of flesh from eyelids
Splaying them eternally open
Can't unsee what's been seen
Can't unhear the sounds
Or unsmell the odor that rots in nostrils, infecting every rose
There's no stopping when they all stink the same
Can't undo, can't undo
Safety in bile where nightmares are birthed in reality,
In places that fester like the remnants of the lids that blinded
Bleach doesn't clean untruths
Fire doesn't  burn hot enough to mask pain
Blisters seem like hope
Hope to heal
Hope to resemble something familiar
Peeling skin back with teeth
Wishing for them to bleed
When scalding tubfulls try to cleanse
the grime that sludges through a broken mind
Attached to a heart mindlessly lashed in the shame of

Love

I tend to forget that I have you
for a set period of time
not very often I remember to cherish our love
to protect our promises
to enjoy every kiss and hold
to extend our tenderness moments
because we both know
how it is to lose it all.

“I” , a single letter as a word
How many letters should do the work?
"Am" , the next step, only two letters
What word next? should have known better...
Seems simple but it’s not breezy
Who “i am” or what "i am"? oh, not that easy!
When I and am are in one room
An excruciating  question mark with them
is what i always assume.
Challenge is erasing the question mark
for me it’s like, searching in the dark.