1. I love the good days
when I am braver than you think
I look at how the rest
of my body
has grown
into what is gone
or grown around
what was cut
and now spends
the rest of her scar-life
learning how to transcend
being an incision
2. the loving surgeon
who
cut out
⅜ of my
left
breast
was so proud
that there was no
incision scar
she blended
her stitches
along the circular route
of my nipple
fourteen years later
my body holds
the indentation
of what
was once
a small breast
and is now
more like
a dip or a
not so deep
crater
on the planet
of this
petite
and
kind
body
that forgives
and forgives
any scalpel
any forced
opening
because
who of us
when given
the chance
to heal
would turn
it down
Michele Kotler is a poet living in New York City, the city that birthed and raised her. She received her MFA in creative writing poetry from the University of Michigan after receiving her BA in creative writing poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the founding director of the Community-Word Project, a teaching artist training and artist in the schools organization. On Wednesday mornings, you can find her generating work with the FLW (f**king lucky women).
Welcome to SWWIM Every Day’s National Poetry Month project: Sing the Body: A Collection of Poems Praising Our Selves!
With support from Florida International University’s Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab (WPHL) and Florida International University’s Center for Women and Gender Studies, we are publishing poems that celebrate body positivity and our selves.
In addition to publishing the poems as poems of the day, 10 select Sing the Body poems will be displayed on FIU’s main campus near mirrors and places where women encounter themselves. These poems will live in a dedicated portfolio on our website.
Thank you, as always, for reading and supporting SWWIM Every Day! Happy National Poetry Month!
