Same Nursing Home, the Next Room Over

Grandma sat on her deathbed, five months

Before she saw the pearly gates, and held her
Grand daughter's hand, and told her about the
Tattoo of the black roses and pink barbed wire
On her sagging lower back.

"There was a time," she sang, staring at the
Wall. 'When I was young and blond, and pearly,
With pouting lips, and cheery cheeks. I was
Twice the woman I should have been and half the
Age I was pretending to be, but God gave me beauty,
And I gave myself to the world.

"I posed for all my lovers, and their cameras
Snapped away at my smile. I left a mark on their
hearts like a wasp will sting your arm,
And I was May in 1966. For Thirty-one days,
I smiled to lonesome businessmen who shaved
And showered and lusted after that gift God gave me.
I wore that tattoo with swimsuits and black
lingerie for ten glittering years. I lived my whole
life when I was young; I lived those
Years to the bone. I answered to no one,
With my sexy red lips, and ink on my skin.
I read poetry with movie stars, naked under the lights
Of New York, and the apartments above.

"Even now, tangled up in tubes and diapers,
With thinning hair and folding skin,
I can close my eyes and relive those ten years
Instead of fearing death, and that's what makes me different
From the other hags down the hall."