Tattoo-Janis Ian

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 sides 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 And 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 will want me now? Am I still alive, somehow? If I can survive, somehow Tattooed" Soldiers from the other side Liberated them at dawn Gave her 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