The Nomadic Flowers on Your Back
by Shalom Galve Aranas
We swam in the sea.
The flowers on your back
seemingly nomadic
as you flexed muscle
above your spine, colors fresh
sluicing down in rivulets
of blood, petals, and pain.
Later the pain of brine
on your newly tattooed skin
will disappear.
Later, I will let you go
or, you will leave me
with memories of flowers
on your back.
Go to them,
your children and their mother.
You just needed someone
to send you off,
or to show off how
you tolerate pain.
Later, I bled too much
the red, silent, painless
tears, but oh, I flowed
a month after the ocean’s
tide reminded me
of how not drown
sharing not only past
the skin but
the needles of your tattoo
as well.
Writers Bio
Shalom Galve Aranas is a freelance writer published in Synaeresis, Enchanted Conversation, Minnie's Diary, and elsewhere. She is a loving, single mother of two.
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