Pain Mandala
for almost four hours she was stabbing me
with the needle of a tattoo gun
my upper thigh has some sensitive spots
so my leg was twitching every so often
like a little earthquake
she was attempting to predict
meanwhile I took deep breaths in and out
trying to keep my eyes glued to the page
as I distractedly read about the decapitation
of a whale that was not white but blood
stained the decks
as the sharks mauled and gnawed the carcass
as it hung from from ropes on the side of the ship
of course if my own head had popped off
I could have set it on the shelf at which I stared
where lovely plants rested under fluorescent light
and merely watched the massacre for a while
but instead I was forced to trudge along
like a hand swabbing at the wood and taking orders
carrying them out with a dull sense
of Shiva and Vishnu
in their triangular glory
who were being painted on my skin as hieroglyphics
like the markings on the thick blanket that sides
the whale