Christina explains the origin of this piece:
"The tattoo is from the front cover of a vintage Heavy Metal comic book my ex-boyfriend used to have. The sleeve was adapted from the drawing by Avelino Avilia at Spirits in the Flesh Tattoo Studio in San Francisco. I had the work done in 1997. There was no deep meaning behind it. I simply found the original image aesthetically pleasing."What follows is Christina's poem "Charity, " which, she says, "was supposed to be published in [another magazine] this year, but they fell off the face of the earth." Their loss is our gain, I say, and they haven't responded to her queries about the poem, so this would mark it's first publication, I believe.
CharityThis person who requiresvery little of mewrecks the neighborhoodin spirits and crushed feathersI wheedle the ajar doorjust give a pushand enjoy the feel of it givingLet loose on the nightwith you clawing behind meferal, whip-tailed, gentle mana shriek of rubber on wet pavementand questionsso many questionsI feel two things:the smoky grit of the upholstery &the constellation of insects in my veinsLust is the arch of the moonin the stomach of a middle-aged womanperverse and sterile,a sprinkling of glass and lacquerfrom a childhood memoryof dark sex and rageI keep hearing you talk to meIt sounds like a sugar cubemuddled in brandy
~ ~ ~
Christina Continelli is a poet, fiction writer, and essayist. She cut her poetry teeth in the San Diego spoken word scene. In 2004 she moved to Oakland, California to attend the MFA program at California College of the Arts. Her work has appeared in Goodfoot Magazine, Slice, How2, and Monday Night Lit.
Thanks to Christina for sharing her poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!
~
This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.
If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.
If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.