Sweeney, Laura

English

The Open Repository @Binghamton (The ORB)

LAURA SWEENEYroaming campus, playing bubbles, strolling in the park,sharing a tuna sandwich and watermelon cupcakewith you, a natural athlete and me an aesthete who can't throwa football softball tennis ball while you chase them all.Like your favorite rope I curled up to the night you sleptat the vet. Or the stuffed bear I found on a park bench,a hospital gift you tussled until the eyes popped, as wesat on the floor, cuddled in my lap. Now, you rollyour belly toward me, shyly. I consider my own breasts,untarnished by tumors, safe from hormone poisoning,consider our bodies in their forties, two barren bitcheswho need to watch our figures. I know you’re awareof your surgeries, how they marred your tummy.I sing an ode to your nipples to your cranial chainto wide margins. Like the lady who shared her retriever’sstory, canine cervical cancer. She'll be fine, she assuredSweeney 861Sweeney: At Your Cancer Check I ReconsiderPublished by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB), 2019, as I lamented the warning about your backnot your décolletage. Or the man from NYC who jetsback and forth to care for his kitten. She’s my babyhe says, and I the rah-rah queen chant, Spay your pet.Freya Sunshine, Freya Monster, l’ve loved you longerthan any man. When the others turned away you stayed,licked our wounds. When the receptionist interrupts, says“we need to weigh her before the doctor will see you,”I have to admit my pleasure, when others starethey only see your surface, only I know your scars.2Harpur Palate: a Literary Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1 [2019], Art. 23https://orb.binghamton.edu/harpurpalate/vol19/iss1/23

At Your Cancer Check I Reconsider

https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2436&context=harpurpalate

At Your Cancer Check I Reconsider

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