Non-Fiction
Cyclopia, 1979
The mother was awake on the operating table, a green surgical drape tented to obstruct her view, husband seated by her head. Dr. Cagan sliced open the woman’s abdomen in one smooth horizontal sweep as if wielding a conductor’s bladed baton and released a ballooning layer of yellow fat. He dug through the tissue, suctioned and blotted, tugged and pulled on the abdominal incision, sawed through the […]
Me and Melanoma
Is That All There Is? I was diagnosed with melanoma two weeks after I had a stillbirth, on the same day as my mother’s birthday, my son’s initial due date (he came early), and my first date with my husband, who told me it had been love at first sight for him. On December 18, […]
My Vasectomy
I sat at the breakfast bar in my parents’ house, staring blankly at my homework, when the heavy front door opened thirty feet away, and my father appeared, his skin ashen grey, his eyes slits, his mouth half-open. Dad’s agony was informed by an inarticulate groan dragging his furry chin until it rested upon his chest and the carelessly buttoned […]