I had your name

Tattooed on the slippery skin

Inside my lower lip

So it would never fade

(Because if I can taste you by name, I will remember you…)

Or be seen by a single soul…

Including my own

(Should I choose to forget you… and the arrangement of letters that construct that shortening word that everyone else calls you).

Then I had your secrets and silent dirges

Tattooed in scarred-white in columns

(And pearlescent crescent moon teeth marks)

On the silken skin of my inner thighs

So no other soul could read them —

Or know them —

Save for me

And my creeping fingers,

And you,

And your bitten ruby tongue.

~~~

❤👽

~~~

*** You know what they say about tattoos, Toots? Getting names tattooed on your face, even the inside of your face, is a really bad idea…. ***

*** I have so many names and words tattooed under my skin that I have more ink than blood running in my veins. ***