What?

Long-nailed hand,
good for picking;
short nailed hand,
good for fretting.

The contrast between
is good for making people
used to symmetry uneasy.
I like that.

Double pierced ear
used to be good for
bothering people, now
means nothing.

Tattoos here and there,
all work-safe, all monochrome
and small:  see related reference
under “double pierced ear.”

What bothers people more maybe now
is my gut.  It bothers me.
It’s gonna kill me and
it gets in the way. Is it in the way

for you? How about
the gray in my beard or
head? Help me out here —
people call me now and then

to say we ought to get together
and talk. What gets in the way
that we never do?  Something
about me seems to…kill.

I won’t
hedge on that.  Friendship comes
to me to die and that’s before
I even speak. Is it the gut,

the hair, the ink, the rings,
the fingers, the finger nails,
the smoke, the face, the eyes,
the past, the future — what?

It was never this hard before.
We came, we spoke, we did
together well.  Not now.
I have to say it’s a little piece of hell.