My scars are called disfiguring
and would be if
I were mere figure,
But I am phantom, angel and light!
My scars symbolize how I took flight
When death chased me
And failed to erase me.
And ten years later, a second scar that is
So close to the other
Celebrates that I am now called mother.
One scar meant life for a baby,
And the other meant life for me.
My scars–gnarled tree branches grown into the length of my belly,
And I am tree.
–Marcia McNair