Identity

Throughout the entirety of the poem, Kooser revisits the theme of identity, a mainstay across his poetry catalog said to celebrate the magic of daily living. The speaker questions what it means to essentially have two sides of ourselves as we grow older and our outward appearances and role in the world change. The tattoo is both a separate entity from the self and a manifestation of the self, at peace with each other when the man was younger but more often in opposition as he has grown older, and his physical vitality has faded.

The side of the man that identifies with the tattoo longs for the youth and recognition as “a stallion, fast and ornery”, evidenced by his decision to continue wearing tighter shirts and showing off the tattoo (8). He has no problem identifying the heart tattoo as an essential part of him, a...