is as generous
as the one they took

and feels for me,
faithfully.

As many times
as the doctors look,

my good breast mirrors back
nothing but good.

I hold it now and then
to feel the other

lost somewhere
and pining for home.

My mother could never love
the parable of the prodigal son.

Why favor the son who left
over the steadfast one

who stayed? Mother,
I understand the story now.

 

 

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Kathleen Flenniken is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Post Romantic (Washington). Her work appears in Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry (Mountaineers) and Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (Norton).

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Lucija Ros, via Unsplash.