I Am a Tattoo of a Sylvia Plath Quote

I climbed off an etsy necklace        and onto her body
                                        next to the tattoo of the big bridge
                           in her town.
                                        The bridge tattoo and I alternate:
sometimes we quote one another,
        other times                we jump off each other.
                                                    It is not dangerous!

I am an invitation to something great,
but sometimes        the great thing is a great        tragedy.
                                                                My first time climbing over a fence,
                my dress ripped completely in half.     It was
                                                symbolic!

                                                         I am a message:
I read every one of her bios.
I heard the recording of her from 1963 where she sounds like she is casting a spell.
The last place she lived she died so hard her neighbors almost died too.
                                                         Do you know how pretty she was?

Bodies ask for more
than air but we should probably           say   no.

I require a tattoo artist who knows Sylvia Plath
    so they can provide the proper amount         of pain
                                                             and understanding.
They use the cheap black ink that greens
and the fuzzy letters look like                moss words growing.
Tattoo ink collectively agrees                    to stay forever but
            some little droplets don’t keep their promises.
   Do not touch me            up.

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Valerie Loveland enjoys collage, audio poetry, running, houseplants, and silent movies. She works in tech and lives in New Jersey.