WINTER WITHOUT BREASTS

I miss my breasts in winter.

For one thing, I get cold.

I keep grabbing for shawls and scarves,

Or folding my arms across my chest;

Anything to hold in the heat.

Who knew?

Cannot feel a thing,

not the softness of a sweater,

nor of a flannel shirt.

Just an overall numbness

and the occasional relentless,  phantom itch.

And the tightness of the muscles

where they removed twenty lymph nodes,

highest number on their record board.

The tightness never eases.

The skin is soft and pliable,

that was the goal as

My physical therapist broke down all the fascia,

teaching me how to stretch the skin free.

Oh, and I can eat chicken, again, without gagging.

Kinda…