Body Decoration
Aug 22 2022
I've never been tattooed.
Flash no rings or gaudy bling
no ostentatious piercings.
In fact, am mostly unimproved.
Because for me
comfort rules,
and a practice of simplicity
suits my world view.
So I wear old clothes
sport tattered shoes.
My hair is brush-cut short
beard closely trimmed,
the crooked tooth
left unfixed.
I'm decidedly old-school,
from a day when only ex-cons
and sailors on shore leave,
Russian mafiosi
and circus performers
wore tattoos.
When respectable people
were uniformly well-groomed.
When tattooing
was too crude to be art.
When pious folk
believed defiling your body
offended God.
And the lovely young woman
with one small tattoo
in an intimate place.
A work of art
to which she gave great thought
but kept to herself;
no need
for others to approve or admire.
Pain, for the sake of beauty.
And a private act of creation
only her lover will know.
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