Deanne Napurano

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Mastectomy

January 20, 2020 By Deanne

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I went through several phases of emotional response after receiving my diagnosis. Yes, I experienced the expected reflex denial, then the self-blaming, followed by confusion, and then a gnawing sense of impatience to get on with it, but I also went through a time when I felt betrayed by my own body. I felt sure that somehow my body became aligned with the cancer, the enemy. It was during that time and immediately after surgery that this short poem began to take shape. I read this piece at a breast cancer art and poetry event, which, surprisingly, it didn’t seem to fit.

 

Mastectomy

 

The blade, a god

parting a sea of skin,

made a monster of my body.

 

Good and Evil

left their dead

across my chest –

pockets turned out,

boots stolen.

A swollen silence, settled

but disturbed.

The look of fear

in desert faces, pocked,

ossified and stretched

to the horizon, dimming,

as it dips beyond.

 

Deanne Napurano

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: breast cancer, poetry

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