A Witch Sees the Future
Lavender Tattoo
The sky has never been so blue
Even through glass that has seen more pollen
Than it has seen hands
Or dust rags — the sky
Has never been so blue.
The blond man snaps
On a new pair of white latex gloves
And resumes inking
The girl — hair frizzed
Bra off, lace shirt shrugged over her shoulder —
Is vibrating. The oscillations travel
From machine to needle
To skin to collarbone to brain
She is radiation
And the ink is her radio telescope
Just sensitive enough to know that
She is the beginning of the universe. She
Carries her relics with her
Lavender held in the crook
Of her body, a pocket
Of skin carrying a purple prayer
In black, a protection spell
From herself — a reminder
That inside her —
In the plasma, in the ink
In the lavender — there is the beginning
Of a new universe
Where the sky will always be
this blue