I – Canvas to Artist
Wrap our cracking skin
in deep-root truth.
Wear our hearts out
where sleeves should go –
help whoever’s trying
to fathom them
not need to
remove so much.

Harden our heaviest metals.
Take pin-prick traumas
and make memorials
of the worse ones
we somehow escaped
without visible scars.

Indulge us,
and we will pay to have them
embossed, exposed to show
and tell our story –
a magnum opus
mouthed in flesh.

Ink us,
and give us power
to draw someone
like a homing signal –
to be found,
and to find another
blemished body
to mesh with ours.

II – Canvas to Lover

I will prove my worth to you
in ink,
in a name not signed
by my own hand.

This will fade with time –
as all things do –
but by it, you will always
recognize my darkness
and the depths of my commitment.