“After the Cut” by Mai-Lon Gittelsohn
I take a shower differently now
I used to stand under the shower head
a font of water splashing down my back
coursing over my breasts
now I sit on a shower bench
hold a hose in my hand
let it spray over my flat chest
inscribed now with scars
I let the water spray against the pits of my arms
prickles teasing numb skin
after the cut, what?
____________________
Share your response to this work, in any form, here
Mai-Lon Gittelsohn’s Artist Statement: After having a double mastectomy because of breast cancer, I sit in front of a mirror, the bandages unwrapped.
A Native Californian, Mai-Lon has lived in Del Mar since 1971. She received her MFA
in Creative Writing in 2012 from Pacific University, Oregon, with a focus on poetry. A
finalist in the New Women’s Voices chapbook contest (Finishing Line Press 2013), her
chapbook Chop Suey and Apple Pie was published in 2014. Her poems have appeared in
the San Diego Poetry Annual, the Patterson Literary Review, the Magee Park Poets
Anthology, and the California Quarterly 2015 (a publication of the California State
Poetry Society). She has taught memoir writing classes in Del Mar and Encinitas since
2004.
