(no subject)

[twoxweeksxaway]

i am often surprised

at how quickly wounds fade to scars
and how soon after that
you forget those little wrinkles at all.

i had appendicitis at eight.
my stomach looks as smooth and even-toned
as a stick of butter. i
am only flawed if you squint
so so hard.

but then it's hard to help thinking,
"ah god! here is where they scalpeled me open,
poking through my organs like searching
for jeans in a suitcase,
all while i slept heavy on gas."

for two weeks, i had staples
and a piece of tape that smelled like hospitals.
those were removed by a doctor with straight eyebrows
in an office that was playing Fern Gully.

i stayed home for two more weeks and did my multiplication tables.
by the time i got back to school, i was so deep into division
that i stopped thinking of where i had been sewed.

it's still there.
my only seam.

i suppose my point is
that there is more than that two-inch bump
holding me together.