Body Modification
I got my first tattoo today.
I’m losing it next week.
It isn’t an external one.
A doctor takes a peek
Inside a bowel (mine, e.g.),
And draws a ring around
The spot to help the surgeon find
The thing the doctor found.
Does this tattoo look good on me?
I guess I’ll never know,
But I’ll soon be accessorized
With scars that I can show.
A Mortal’s Résumé
(after Dorothy Parker)
Entropy cools you,
Light moves fast,
The universe fools you,
But that won’t last.
Chris O’Carroll is an actor, comedian, Light featured poet, and author of the poetry collection The Joke’s on Me (White Violet Press, 2019). His work also appears in The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology and Love Affairs at the Villa Nelle. The surgery was a complete success and he is now cancer-free, so don’t let the gallows humor mislead you.