Mastectomy, Simple

BLR 2021

 

I never expected to feel the cool drink running

so close to my skin, just under my newly sutured

chest, my heart side now genderless and tender—

 

to love my flat chest, so much like the one I had at 13,

skateboarding in t-shirts without a bra. Never expected

to notice my right nipple, how it still becomes hard—

 

a lonely pleasure like that of an only child. 

Never expected to forsake the idea 

of a matched set, how someone could rest their head

 

on my left chest, tuck in like a baby to its father,

hear the oscillation of my heartbeat, just beneath

the surface, resonant fountain, chamber music.

 

Featured poet in Cultural Weekly. 

2015 Pushcart nomination for "Our Aquarium."

 

Poem "Pressing Love" in Out of Sequence: The Sonnets Remixed (Upstart: A Journal of English Rennaisance Studies, 2014)

 

Poem "Battle Dressings"

in *82 Review Issue 2.2 (Spring 2014)

 

Three poems in This Assignment is So Gay: LGBTIQ Poets on the Art of Teaching (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013). ALA-honored anthology, Lambda Literary Finalist

 

Poem "Composition" in

Adrienne Rich: A Tribute Anthology (Split Oak Press, 2012)

 

Two poems in Community of Writers: Poetry Anthology 2011 and 2015

 

Short story "Oh My Godzilla" published in the anthology, Mentsh, On Being Jewish and Queer (Alyson Books, 2004.)