Swastika Girl

 By: Amnesia Grok

& I have this friend, you see.

She’s a good friend & an overall fine gal,

makes a good bloody mary,

washes behind her ears,

& never picks her nose in public.

What else could you ask for in a friend,

really?

But there’s this & here’s the thing…

She’s got this tattoo…

& the tattoo goes all the way around her arm

& it’s red and it’s black and it’s white,

& it’s like a Nazi armband.

Complete with Swastika.

Perfectly nice girl,

but I do wonder about her judgment.

I mean, she’s never so much as hinted

that she & I should go

running through town on a Saturday night

& break storefront windows

of Jewish shop owners

or invade Poland.

& maybe she’s into Nazi imagery

the same way the next guy is into Star Wars

or Twilight.

But is it still too soon?

& I mean, even me…

I have this damn John Edwards ’08 tat

to remind me of my own embarrassing past.

But a Swastika?

Let me lay it down –

if it were me?

I’d get the thing retouched

into something less horrific.

Like maybe an image of Kevin Costner

being sodomized by the Bee Gees.

But the tat is there

& from the looks of it

it’s not going anywhere

for as long as she still has the arm.

& I remain her friend

despite my doubts.

But we never talk politics

& I never use her shower

or her oven.