Inventor of the mammogram, who
made it possible—nay, required—

for anyone who owns them to get
their breasts mauled by

unforgiving steel. Men, of course,
invented this torture, going

back to Albert Solomon,
1913, first x-raying breasts,

and Raul LeBorgne, whom
we have to thank for the notion

of compressing them, which,
to give him a little credit,

raises the quality of images
and lowers radiation.

And wouldn’t you know that
a company called Siemens

developed the first machine,
whose descendants squish us now?

Doesn’t help when I know
I’ve been dodging the calls from

well-meaning women wanting to
schedule my biennial abuse, that

I just gotta pick up the phone,
knowing that it will result

in not one trip but at least
two, since my girls will require

ultrasound, too. But they
have to start in the masher,

bruised for weeks, though
I don’t say this to Lisa or Gina

or Carol, nor to Sue or Linda,
whose mammograms revealed

the worst, who lost breasts or
part of them or suffered worse.

My girls and I will live with
the bruises, in honor of

those who were saved—
however brutally—

in memory of those
who weren’t.