Tattoo

If only you were here

To trace the outline

Of my tattoo, perhaps,

And touch your lips

To its lines.

To trace your fingers

Down to the scar

Where I carefully

Measured one inch across

And sliced through the skin

Until bone emerged

To feel the groove

Left behind by your ring

That twisted silver band

Of heart and stone

Which didn’t leave my finger

For seven long years

To touch the place

Where they inserted

A line and pumped me

Full of medicine

And waited for me to

Empty myself of you

They don’t know

That I hid you

In the black hole

Behind my bones

Beyond my skin

Where the heart

Once used to be