scarlet letter, a badge, new sheriff, old sheriff, ex-cons, parole officers, forever branded, marked, that guy when you walk into a room, the white elephant, or the pink elephant, a tattoo, indelible, indestructible, a reputation, a rep, the rep, the kind of car you drive, a parking ticket, that grade school prank that's on your permanent record, could i see my permanent record? when'd that stop? high school? college? is it still around? is my grad school stuff on it? if I got back again, would i be able to pull it up? that's something that follows me around, aside from regrets, haunting memories that color and funnel and reshape the sucking of the present through twirly straws, the kool-aid coloring between the lines, all the way up, around, and in. reinvention, recalculation, refactoring of the old into more efficient, better designed, get rid of the unnecessary, the unneeded, unheeded, streamlining.