NPM Day 3

I started thinking of this poem last night, but I was too tired (lazy?) to get out of bed and write down what I had.  So I started writing it in my head, repeating the lines that I had and slowly adding to it.  I've tried this before, but to no available.  This is the first time I remember a poem coming to me in the night and staying until morning.  I'm not sure that it is verbatim, but all the ideas that I wanted to convey came back to me so I could write them down.  So glad it was more than a one night stand. Again, just a first draft, but it's a start.

#3

“Stretch Marks”

 

They sprawl across her hips and down her thighs.

Emerging from armpits, they claw at her breasts

in search of milk that was never there.

Then in spontaneous patches they appear –

down the sides of her ribs, on her belly…

 

If she were any other mammal,

this pattern would serve a purpose.

It would attract a mate, ward off predators,

provide camouflage in her natural environment.

 

These crooked lines of rippled skin,

like the lumpy, shiny edge along the seam of a mylar balloon

taut with helium.  She watches them grow.

First peach, then plum.

 

She gently fingers the fault lines.

Has there ever been a body so full of weakness?

There is no balm –

no amount of cocoa butter, aloe vera,

vitamin E will heal these scars.

Scars where there were never any wounds.

Proof

of a different kind of battle entirely.

**

Also, my big brother hits a milestone today.  Happy Thirtieth, T.  Love you.