A POEM by JAIME

Poncho: A Self Portrait

your new tattoo itches

it’s only made worse by the wine

wearing adidas from the second hand store

thinking about how you used to dumpster dive

‘elder millennial’ is what they call you

a generational drift inflated by buzzfeed

taking everything personally until

you finally talk to your doctor

coming of age at the end of an era

learning the true meaning of the word ‘recession’

only after your move abroad

and your soup-filled visit home

pining to listen to the spice girls

with the 20 year old working the front desk

at the tattoo shop last week

and you remember that it still itches

making jewelry before the days of etsy

refusing to give your soul to anything creative

since the time your HR manager was offended

by your lunch-time beading in the break room

looking out your window at the garden wall

that beige colour you chose just

to avoid an argument with your neighbours

about unity and regulation and sameness

daydreaming of the poncho you wore

orange and brown and old and rough

sleeping sideways on a 40 hour bus journey

to a destination you chose out of convenience

bunching up the bottom of the poncho

to use as a make-believe pillow

your shoulders warmed by the wool but itching

just like your new tattoo

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Jaime is a neurodiverse, Canadian-born, long-term resident of Dublin, Ireland that works in tech. After years of writing content for others, Jaime is now focusing her creative energies on writing poetry, short/flash fiction, and occasionally painting.