"Describing Tattoos to a Cop" by Brenda Hillman

Brenda Hillman is an activist-poet who wrote this poem after traveling to D.C. to protest the Keystone Pipeline. I recommend listening to her read the poem here.


Describing Tattoos to a Cop
by Brenda Hillman

After Ed Sanders

We’d been squatting     near the worms
            in the White House lawn, protesting 
the Keystone Pipeline =$=$=$=$=$=$=>>;
            i could sense      the dear worms 
   through    the grillwork fence, 
            twists & coils   of flexi-script, remaking
the soil    by resisting it    ...    
                           After the ride in the police van 
             telling jokes, our ziplocked handcuffs
pretty tight,
                      when the presiding officer asked:

— Do you have any tattoos?
— Yes, officer, i have two.
— What are they?
— Well, i have a black heart on my inner thigh & 
             an alchemical sign on my ankle.
— Please spell that?
— Alchemical. A-L-C-H-E-M-I-C-A-L.
— What is that?
— It’s basically a moon, a lily, a star & a flame.

He started printing in the little square

MOON, LILY, STAR


Young white guy, seemed scared. One blurry 
      tattoo on his inner wrist    ...     i should have asked 
            about his, but couldn’t
 cross that chasm.     Outside,   Ash
Wednesday in our nation’s capital.     Dead
               grass, spring trees 
about to burst, two officers
           beside the newish van. Inside,
              alchemical notes for the next time —




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