—SUE ME, I WANNA BE WANTED

 

Poolside

 

 

In the hotel infinity pol, there’s ink for yards and days, tattoos of every kind, motifs, murals, cartoons, scripture and stanzas, as if their flesh can confess what they can’t share aloud.

I swim around a man shaped like a baby Orca, the red hat stamp blazing on the entire full of his back which might as well be an alarm or swastika.

When we surface at the same time, he grins and gives me a thumbs-up. Starts to say something he find clever or funny, while I swim on, keeping my hands and finger below the water, even as I’m twitching.