Breast Cancer

We were told we had time.
That day after day
Our tomorrows stretched
Like little waves under a full moon
On the deep blue ocean,
Our potential lapping
At the horizon:
Limitless.

“Slow down” – they said
“Have patience.
Your day will come.”
But it didn’t.

Instead, the empty beer cans
And plastic bags
They threw
Into our ocean’s boundless depths
Floated
Onto our shores.
Gathering in our breasts and
Clogging our horizons.

Who are we now?
Now they have chopped off
Our polluted breasts?

They offered us new ones.
Silicone mounts that look just right!
So long as you don’t need nipples.
So long as you don’t need feeling.
So long as you replace them
Every 10 years –
Or when they burst
And flood your body with
MORE toxicity.
So long as you don’t mind –
That they aren’t really
Breasts at all.

Are we even women?
After all
That’s what we were taught:
It’s ok so long as we still LOOK right.
So long as we already had our babies.
So long as our perky, silicone boobs
Help THEM to feel ok.

Now the tomorrows they promised us were cut short.
By hospital beds and chemicals
Injected into our veins.
And radiation burns
And hormonal blocks
Put a stop to our womanhood.

Can we still sail life’s shining seas –
In all our mangled beauty?
Our sexless bodies
Fighting the winds
Of a polluted world?

How many tomorrows are left to us –
We who aged while we were still young?
Where is that horizon now –
That glittered so brightly
In the morning sun
Before the smog rolled in?