Springtime

I lost my right breast today
no longer will it
feed
beckon
bloom
or wilt
It is faith interrupted
The casualty of a silent war
that treads heavily on my mind

I lost my right breast today
the doctors tried to save it
but it was too heavy
empty from feeding an unruly world
the yolk of peace
and axis of six nations that know my name
but not me

a monument
that no longer stands
yet still speaks


even when my face is glowing
and my arms are bronzed
and my smile is forgiving
like the bend of the dawn
I know the raven
is there, waiting


I lost my right breast today
the one they call faithful and true
the one that gives
to those who do not ask or appreciate
the one destroyed from within


I lost my right breast today
and yet
when I turn over in my sleep
as the heat creeps up my neck
as the sweat sneaks down my back
as my breath is labored with my past
burdened with the sheer weight
of the future
like my sheets

I reach for it
and feel it
and I know it never really went away