Beloved Tattoo
A poem by Lori Levy

Beloved Tattoo

I watch entranced as my granddaughter, not yet two,
circles her hands around her daddy’s arm. Huggie, she says,
and embraces it—smiling, adoring, in love 
with her daddy’s tattoo.

Not a heart or a rose or even her name—
just the logo of his former band,
her daddy the guitarist in Poopan Hooligan.

She presses her cheek to her beloved tattoo,
says, Hi, Tattoo, kisses it, cleans it,
tries to feed it. What is this love?
Is she soaking in music through the sunburst image?
Hearing a beat, her ear on the P of the logo? 

She copies her mommy in a hip hop dance,
clapping, bouncing, swaying her hips.
She laughs when we laugh,
laughs some more.

I think of the future.
Maybe she’ll grow up to be
a math professor. Anything’s possible.
But look how this little girl enters a room,
how she tilts her head, brightening her face
into one big smile till all her features
are teasing, flirting, joking with us.
This is Emilia Rose.
I think she emerged from the womb
as a singer/dancer/entertainer.

About the Author:

Lori Levy’s poems have appeared in Rattle, Nimrod International Journal, Poet Lore, Paterson Literary Review, Mom Egg Review, and numerous other online and print literary journals in the U.S., the U.K., and Israel. Two of her chapbooks were recently published, one by Kelsay Books and the other by Ben Yehuda Press. Levy lives with her extended family in Los Angeles.

Some of Lori’s poems can be found on IG@lorilevypoems

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