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31 Days of Pink Ribbon Poetry

Collected by Alysa Cummings
Digital images by Alysa Cummings
Affiliation: The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: May 1, 2008

Before And After
Tommie Ortega
From: The Cancer Poetry Project: poems by cancer patients and those who love them (Karin B. Miller, editor) Fairview Press, 2001

I remember water
touching my body differently
as, still whole, I lay in that last hot bath.

Now I discover a freckle
beneath where my breast once was
and feel a newness come over me.

I ask god to tell me he loves me
and he answers
through the taste of a sweet, summer peach.

Water pours over a scarred, curveless mass, and I am
cleansed.

Quotable Healing - Quote of the Day

The most important medicine is tender love and care.

About 31 Days of Pink Ribbon Poetry