Justin Enns

I wrote this for my goddaughter after she got a tattoo

This year you’ve endured some pain.
And I’m not talking ‘bout this pandemic again
Or challenging classes in this year’s campaign
No, it’s the fish swimming over your cephalic vein

It’s cute and it’s blue and it’s there till you die.
Just go ask your dad and his bug that can’t fly.
I s’pose he must love it, so I can see why
You decided to cover your arm with blue dye.

Though it does make me ask, is this just the first?
Has fishy been quenching your blue inky thirst?
Or are SLEEVES in your future? They are the worst!
I shouldn’t have said that, but they can’t be reversed!

But there was much more besides the tattoo;
When we came from Drumheller, you welcomed us through
On grass in your sweats with your hair all askew
Yet, you’re still like Gaston and I’m your Lafoo

Your number one cheerleader, I’ll always be:
Whether rocking as Bertha or biology;
Unpacking and pricing meticulously
Or acting and singing and dancing – all three!

This momentous year, where you plan out your future
Do you want to make movies or doctor with sutures?
You can’t stay at home, turn into a moocher
And you can’t live with Sawyer to become a smoocher

Grade 12 is so hard! Decisions aplenty
Where foresight is nowhere near fair twenty-twenty
And boyfriends are tricky, ‘cause what, in the event he –
Does naught, do you train with a famed cognoscenti –

Who lives far away, perhaps in Quebec
Or London, New Zealand, Republic of Czech?
I don’t know, but I do know what might save your neck
As you start on your journey, your roaming, your trek:

Find what you love; become better than Them
‘Cause Them’s awful good at bio and chem
And acting and singing and all that mayhem
You have to work hard to become that clear gem

And then when you do, you’ll look back and smile
The pain and the tears were all really worthwhile
Your stiff competition is back by a mile
The rest are all heaped in a substandard pile

So put your head down and push till the end.
It hurts, but it’s really the way to ascend.
And know that whatever you do,
Even sleeves could not lessen how much I love you.

Love, your godfather