On Getting a Tattoo

1.

I’m not sure when
I actually knew my
own mind.

Opinions stable and
straight as hundred-year
white oaks.

Experience the key,
choosing the right lock in a
door with four.

Living abroad,
learning a foreign
tongue.

How can nouns
have sex? How can
they not?

Our differences all loop
back to shared red
heme.

2.

The old joke, marriage
sure, but a tattoo is
permanent.

Faded black-green
words on her 28 year
old skin.

How will it read
when the decades
sag?

So not yet, arms
uninked. 30’s pass and
40’s bring

two blond girls.
Dad, a good example
be.

“If you get one
they will too.” So,
not yet.