The lump on my neck is getting smaller.
The doctor shot it with cortisone
last week.
Well, he didn’t shoot it,
his nurse did.
Now, when I reach up
to touch it, it feels more like a pea,
than the dime it used to feel like.
I don’t know why I get these lumps,
or red dots, or scales.
Maybe it's because my mother had them.
I remember watching her sit in the dermatologist’s
office in Houston, getting things frozen
and burned off and thinking how weird
all of those little things on her body were.
Now, they are mine.
We have the same skin.
It’s pale and thin and doesn’t like the sun
and it wrinkles more than it should.
I have my mother's skin
and I don’t like it one bit.
