How To Heal: A Poem About Grief Following Mastectomy

I'm re-posting this poem I wrote last March.  

April is National Poetry Month.  

When I first wrote this poem, I had been trying for a while to summarize my grief and emotional healing process following a unilateral mastectomy surgery.  Losing a breast was hard.   I chose not to have reconstruction, so I'm flat on one side.  Looking back, I know that writing poetry, and journaling, was a big part of how I learned to overcome my grief.  Now it's been almost two and a half years since I lost my breast, and I can honestly say that I love myself more now and feel closer to whole than I have ever been (including before having breast cancer).  It's hard to share something so personal, but it is my hope that by sharing it, I might help someone else who has gone through the same experience.  Just know that it will be OK.  And that you are beautiful.  

Love, Christine  

How To Heal

They said I would be OK
If they carved out a hollow place
Next to my heart.

But no one told me
How to heal.
I had to learn that for myself.

I learned how to wrap a ribbon around my soul,
Like a bandage.
I learned how to pray.

And when it hurt,
I learned to wash it clean with my tears.
I learned how to cry.

I learned how to love myself,
Even the horizontal scar
That divides my life and body in two.

They offered me a replacement for my breast.
But I chose to fill it in
With hope instead.