Tattoos

Well I like your latest tattoo
how you wash it for the first few days
and wince when it's touched
Looks good on your cool waist

As far as religion goes I've only one commandment:
that I'll never stain any part of me
the way you have done.
I'm trying to keep my body clean and slender
for the crow-footed, veiny-eyed whelk
set to inherit it some day

You'll know him when he comes, if you last that long
The ill-tempered zot will destroy all my work
(to him it's pigswill - to me it's a perfect style,)
and no doubt hobnob with Leslie Epstein,
rewrite my epitaph, torment my children
etc.
He'll hate me for my contentment
and for spending so long in second-hand bookshops

Nevertheless,
for this sycophant, I am keeping
my body unmarked and tidy,
tattooing pages for his firewood
and memorising your milky hip

He can never say I wasn't generous