The heart is closer to the left
and therefore further from the right breast
her first born refused
after three months. His back
arched with the ache
he'll never remember his brother
was born content. After she returned
to work, he'd wait for the milky
hours nursing the starless
night as dark as a secret
the time she had her right nipple
pierced, feeling the hidden
history of pleasure soon to be
removed the day she found
the lump. The doctor felt it too,
said there were things she'd have
to do as she sat watching
the slant of his right hand
signing x-ray forms, a request
to the radiologist to complicate
the short history of her right breast.