Tattoo - Janis Ian

Janis Ian

Breaking silence

Tattoo

Her new name was tattooed to her wrist

It was longer than the old one

Sealed in the silence with a fist

This night will be a cold one

Centuries live in her eyes

Destiny laughs over jack-booted thighs

«Work makes us free», says the sign

Nothing leaves here alive

Tattoo

She steps out of line to the left

And her father to the right

One side’s a cold, clean death

The other is an endless night

Gold from a grandmother’s tooth

Mountains of jewelry and toys

Piled in the corners

Mailed across the borders

Presents for the girls and boys

Presents for the girls and boys

Tattoo

It gets darker every night

Spread-eagled out among the stars, she says

«Somewhere in this tunnel lives a light

«Still my beating heart

«I have never known a man

«what man would want me now?

«am I still alive somehow?

«If I can survive somehow

«tattooed»

Soldiers from the other side'

Liberated them at dawn

Gave he water, gave her life

She still had all her clothes on

She lived until she died

Empty as the autumn leaves that fly

Surgeons took the mark

But they could not take it far

It was written on her heart

Written on her empty heart

Tattooed