Image: Earth from space, Blue enrobed with abundant ice on South pole, Apollo 17, 1972, NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/content/blue-marble-image-of-the-earth-from-apollo-17 Mama Earth gets a mammogram
she gets up with the sun
for her appointment
and has to take two buses
on the second one, she stands holding onto the strap
and the young people glowing into their screens
don't offer her a seat
she gets up slowly
with a rocking motion that propels the great globe
of her belly forward
with an audible sigh
the driver kneels the bus down
taking pity on her slow progress
aluminum walker with split tennis balls on the hooves
she looks around with the sun
squinting at an angle into her eyes
cradled by their rivers
carved by years of laughing and concentrating
to puzzle through
sees the semicircular driveway and metallic windows
and shuffles her bulk
through the door to information
spells out her name
for the unfazed ponytailed volunteer
chewing gum
who sends
Ms. Earth
to mammography
without looking up
the plates are cold
and seem to smash her breast
between them
with unnecessary force
her breath tightens and catches
against the pressure
but that's been going on for a while now
like a century
she hasn't had time to get it checked out
so many other fires to put out
the job she has seems always to take more than 24 hours in a day
if that's possible
and never came with the kind of insurance or sick days
that would allow her time to get her lungs checked
it's harder to remember details these days
but it seems like she hasn't had a raise
since the Rockies popped up
mmmmm, that was a hard birth, too
the tech asks her to switch breasts
and the plates descend again
she heard through the grapevine
there was this new preventative care plan
free mammograms every year
or in her ancient case
eon
she doesn't know what she'll do with a positive result
a biopsy sounds not only painful but expensive
and she doesn't know if it's covered
the little she'd been saving for retirement
disappeared in the
crash
the tech’s eyes behind her glasses
look concerned
mama knows the tech isn't really allowed
to tell her anything
but those women are always the first to know
she hopes it's not too serious
and if they do find something
that it's not
too late
Reba Connell, Berkeley, California, USA, 37.9° N, 122.3° W, June 2013, Cenozoic era
she gets up with the sun
for her appointment
and has to take two buses
on the second one, she stands holding onto the strap
and the young people glowing into their screens
don't offer her a seat
she gets up slowly
with a rocking motion that propels the great globe
of her belly forward
with an audible sigh
the driver kneels the bus down
taking pity on her slow progress
aluminum walker with split tennis balls on the hooves
she looks around with the sun
squinting at an angle into her eyes
cradled by their rivers
carved by years of laughing and concentrating
to puzzle through
sees the semicircular driveway and metallic windows
and shuffles her bulk
through the door to information
spells out her name
for the unfazed ponytailed volunteer
chewing gum
who sends
Ms. Earth
to mammography
without looking up
the plates are cold
and seem to smash her breast
between them
with unnecessary force
her breath tightens and catches
against the pressure
but that's been going on for a while now
like a century
she hasn't had time to get it checked out
so many other fires to put out
the job she has seems always to take more than 24 hours in a day
if that's possible
and never came with the kind of insurance or sick days
that would allow her time to get her lungs checked
it's harder to remember details these days
but it seems like she hasn't had a raise
since the Rockies popped up
mmmmm, that was a hard birth, too
the tech asks her to switch breasts
and the plates descend again
she heard through the grapevine
there was this new preventative care plan
free mammograms every year
or in her ancient case
eon
she doesn't know what she'll do with a positive result
a biopsy sounds not only painful but expensive
and she doesn't know if it's covered
the little she'd been saving for retirement
disappeared in the
crash
the tech’s eyes behind her glasses
look concerned
mama knows the tech isn't really allowed
to tell her anything
but those women are always the first to know
she hopes it's not too serious
and if they do find something
that it's not
too late
Reba Connell, Berkeley, California, USA, 37.9° N, 122.3° W, June 2013, Cenozoic era
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