Fading Tattoos and Fading Love

A cycle of poems «The Last Letter I Burned Was My Own»

Ink bleeds slow on weathered skin,
Your name still burns beneath the din.
I swore it’d last beyond the years -
Now both are ghosts… and both in tears.

I carved you deep where pain resides,
Thought love like ours would never hide.
But time’s a thief with acid hands -
It stole your touch… and my command.

Fading tattoos and fading love,
Scars of a fire from above.
You were my creed, my war, my vow -
Now just a stain upon my brow.
The needle lied, the ink ran thin,
Just like the hope I held within.
I wear you still - but you’re not mine…
Just echoes carved in dying lines.

I got it drunk on your last night,
Said, “This will keep you ever bright.”
Black and bold across my chest -
A vow I thought would pass the test.
You kissed the wound, said, “Don’t be mad…
Love like ours can’t stay unmarked.”
But marks don’t bind a fleeing soul -
They just remind you of the hole.

I scrubbed it raw in midnight showers,
Hoping to kill the ghostly powers.
But skin forgets - my heart won’t lie:
You’re still the reason I still cry.

Fading tattoos and fading love,
Scars of a fire from above.
You were my creed, my war, my vow -
Now just a stain upon my brow.
The needle lied, the ink ran thin,
Just like the hope I held within.
I wear you still - but you’re not mine…
Just echoes carved in dying lines.

Now I see you with him downtown -
Your hand in his, no looking down.
No trace of me upon your skin…
While mine still screams where you’ve been.
You moved on clean, no ink, no chains -
Just sunlight after all my rains.
And I’m left here, half-alive,
With a name that won’t survive.

I’d burn this flesh, peel it clean,
If it meant I’d stop seeing
Your smile in every mirror’s glare,
Your whisper in the midnight air.
But flesh remembers what the mind denies -
Your ghost still lives beneath these skies…
Of scar and sin, of love undone -
A battle lost… before it’s won.

Fading tattoos and fading love,
Ashes of a dying dove.
You were my truth, my final stand -
Now just a ghost I can’t command.
The ink’s gone gray, the colors bleed,
Like every promise I couldn’t keep.
I wear you still - but you’re long gone…
Just pain etched where you don’t belong.

So let the sun bleach every trace,
Let time erase this hollow space.
But even when the ink is dust…
Your name will rise from blood and rust.
Fading tattoos…
Fading love…
Never enough…
Never enough.