Prelude to a Double Mastectomy by ChristiAnne Ross
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
During my second hospitalization, the nurses confiscated what they had mistaken for lethal means: a stake drawn through a goat’s ruptured eye
and a bouquet of roasted hominy and leaves. I am never aware of what tries to destroy me, which is why I have been trapped between
Pasadena’s sunlight and harsh vapor, the toads making a mockery of me beneath certain stones.
One nurse says I am too beautiful to be here so I nod and pander to the hands that hold my Lexapro and a bowl of fava beans. Of course, she is wrong. A destabilization of the self
does not care for aesthetics. A reversal of freedom means a bloodied navel or fallen star.
CHRISTIANNE ROSS is an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California who is pursuing a degree in journalism. Their work appears in Bear Review and is forthcoming in Brink Literary Journal. They are from Houston, Texas.
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