POEM
Fake Tattoo
My butterfly sits
atop my wrist
as if it’s poised for flight.
My lovely tattoo
no longer new
will fade before the night.
Still, after it’s gone,
it will live on
inside my memory.
This jewel of the air—
beauty most rare—
that once was plain as me.
"Fake Tattoo." Copyright 1978 by Nikki Grimes. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Source: Self-published poem by Nikki Grimes. (Self-published, 1978)
Nikki was born in Harlem in 1950. At the age of 13, she gave her first
poetry reading, . . . MORE »
