Beverly at 51

 

Beverly's belly, chest, breast

and absence of breast

lean into the future with love.

Love lifts her chin

like the prow of a ship parting waves;

love honors the place

where one of her breasts

no longer is. All that her lost

nipple once yearned to give

in the way of pleasure and sustenance

lives. When Bev hears the cries

of women who suffer as she did,

spirit milk from her breast overflows

through her voice, hands, eyes-

She welcomes, listens, witnesses,

cries, laughs, encourages, hugs.

As a new mother rides the swell

and the spill of the milk in her breasts,

rising to her baby's cries, Bev rides

the same flood of kindness inside her

that keeps her so keenly alive.