Thursday, April 14, 2016

The Tattooed Poets Project: Cassandra Dallett

Our next tattooed poet is Cassandra Dallett:


Cassandra tells us:
"I have three tattoos. I want more. I plan to get some poetry on my arm something that actually represents who I am, but for whatever reason I haven't got around to it. I also want to get a portrait of my son who is now grown up and I've been planning that since he was born. What I have are roses to cover up a dude's name over my heart and I have the Libra scales on my back. I would like to dramatically upgrade the Libra its pretty awful. I got the name and the cover up at a shop in The Mission district of San Francisco. I can't even think of the name it's been over twenty years, they have probably been gentrified right out of there. The fun fact is I had the name Kavan and his nickname Vano. The guy that covered them up was also named Van which seemed unlikely and he was pretty sexy. I would have left the name uncovered for him. When my book Wet Reckless came out the publisher chose the cover art showing a tattoo of the title in the same place as my tattoo and as far as I know it was a coincidence I don't think she had ever seen my tattoo.
My tattoo says One Love over the roses which was about me choosing self love over a man's love. My poetry is about that too."
Cassandra shared the following poem:

Made Like This
When I was little,
I spent afternoons on my parent’s bed
looking through Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler
before I could read I studied the pictures
clicked my tongue wetly.
Our neighbor’s family had six boys
I rode to school with in their green station wagon
went home to straddle and hump my pillow
think about fucking them all
smother my face breathless
imagining us in the woods
on a frayed cot of slippery plaid
above the mossy rocks
them taking turns with my body
doing all the things I saw in the magazines
all the hollering I heard in the night.

~ ~ ~

Cassandra Dallett lives in Oakland, CA. Cassandra is a two-time Pushcart nominee and reads often around the San Francisco Bay Area. She has published online and in many print magazines. A full-length book of poetry Wet Reckless was released to good review on Manic D Press May 2014. In 2015 she published five chapbooks, Bad Sandy, Pearl Tongue, The Water Wars, On Sunday, A Finch, and Armadillo Heart with MK Chavez [who appeared Tuesday on Tattoosday].

Thanks to Cassandra for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on The Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2016 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.


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