Tit poem

For G...

She made my mother
write handle with care
across her breast
with the thick black
tongue
of a permanent marker
when she came to drive her
to the operation
that morning

She told the doctor
staring at the exclamation
marks that spread down
between her breasts
one healthy
one suspect
that she was single again
that she needed her tits
just right
now

The doctor nodded
and sent the nurses to tell her
to take all her
clothes off
as if she was on
a suspect First Date
where the man you thought
was healthy
tells you what he wants
and assumes
that you
can
give it
to him

She’d stowed her clothes
her two intact breasts
still in the cups
of her bra
in a locker on the ward
but when she woke up
on a different stretcher
in a different room
they’d escaped
their bonds
and were heaped
next to her
as they would have been
on her bedroom
floor
if she’d been alone

It took her a long time
to paw through her clothes
her bandaged breast
beating
but her underwear
didn’t shake out
of the long creased legs
of her pants
and when she told them
all the legs in the hall
all the charts and chimes
and calls from different rooms
different stretchers
a nurse slowed down
long enough
to say
maybe you didn’t wear
underwear
today
as if a woman
facing
6:30 am surgery
and a suspect
tit
might
go without

She stared the woman
down
it was brand new
hot pink underwear
she said
and sat back
as people scurried around the ward
saying
have you seen her
underwear
her underwear is missing
until an intern found them
puddled
on the bland floor

Later she says wanna
see my tit
and whips up her shirt
before I can say no
to show me a bandage
as big as a handkerchief loaned
out by a black and white man
to a crying woman
not knowing herself
how and where they cut
or if the doctor
took the time
to wash away
handle with care
before he set
the knife
to her

* * * * *

I wrote this poem as a part of A Poem A Day in May - specifically, it was Day 18.

G. has since forwarded it to her co-workers, friends, and even to her doctor. She also sat in the audience when I read it at McNally Robinson Booksellers and blushed.