itchy legs

things on my legs right now:

the welts from the two hour river walk,
wading in sweetgrass up to my knees
and my new tattoos swollen with red

marks from the the mosquitos who were teething
on my ankles last night, they rose up
from the gravestones in dustclouds and said
stay a little longer, remember us
under your fingernails

the blue stripe of a bruise
where i drove with a tank full
of fish held tight behind my knee,

the one with the tissue-paper scars
from the bike accident on the gravel driveway
and a week later on my grandmother's sidewalk,

and further up a memory
of your hands on the one spot
you like so much, a place i never
thought about before.