There is a tattoo on your arm,
in your soul and mind,
scars as history,
as a reminder of not forgetting,
as a remedy for slippage,
as clarity about the dark days.

The tattoo is not pleasure or fashion:
but a recognition of a number,
of identity, loss, and suffering
that lingers still in the common air
to bring resolve and conviction
about what was and still can be
in the furnaces of hate that
yet burn and wait.

 

7/6/2024