Tattoo

Tattoo
What once was meant to be a statement—
a dripping dagger held in the fist
of a shuddering heart—is now just a bruise
on a bony old shoulder, the spot
where vanity once punched him hard
and the ache lingered on. He looks like
someone you had to reckon with,
strong as a stallion, fast and ornery,
but on this chilly morning, as he walks
between the tables at a yard sale
with the sleeves of his tight black T-shirt
rolled up to show us who he was,
he is only another old man, picking up
broken tools and putting them back,
his heart gone soft and blue with stories. 

Kooser’s Tattoo highlights how something in one moment can mean so much and in the next moment completely loses its meaning. The extremely negative diction lends to the overall remorseful tone of the poem. The “dripping dagger,” “shuddering heart,” and the “bony old shoulder” all seem to indicate the fleetingness of something that was once considered “strong…fast and ornery.” As time has progressed, the fierce tattoo has lost its ferociousness as the man has physically aged. The tattoo now merely appears as a “bruise,” and the old man just appears as “only another old man.” There are no distinguishing features about him, and he seems worn out. The phase of “vanity” has disappeared and now he must battle with time and his natural age. Kooser’s lesson seems to be to not satisfy momentary desires and urges, as the momentary loses value and significance years down the road, when something so small will have no worth in old age. In fact, in satisfying one’s desires, one may find that his heart will go “soft and blue.”