THE STATE ON YOUR LEG
There it was, the state of Washington. It rose from your black boot in much the same way a sun rises from a mountain. You were sitting in a northbound Link train. You sat alone. The 14-year-old girl sitting behind you talked on the phone about how her friend was messing with a 27-year-old man, and as we wondered if that “messing” constituted a crime, and as you looked out the window, we examined the details of your tattoo, which is a striking mix of blues and greens. We could clearly see Puget Sound and, vaguely, the San Juan Islands. And also the most northwestern tip of the continental United States, Cape Flattery. We were able to determine the exact position of Port Angeles, which has ferries going to and coming from Victoria, BC. We wanted to see the rest of our state—particularly the border defined by the course of the Columbia River—but you changed the position of your legs, and Washington returned to the depths of your black boot…