Pause for Surgery

 

On Monday, November 23, I had Mohs Micrographic surgery to remove a basal cell carcinoma from the tip of my nose.  Basal cell is not deadly, but it is invasive and destructive.  So I also have a skin graft from the side of my face onto my nose.  Am swathed in bandages now.  Won't know what this looks like until next Monday,

This is the third "mohs"  I've had: a very large one in 2000, a smaller one on my left temple in 2015, and this one now.   All those years of sunburn combined with Irish/German skin have done their damage.

Here 's a poem I wrote about this a few years ago:

Scar

 

Although the rain ran like a canal

in the creases of the windowsill,

more of it pouring in, filling every crevice

of the screen,

dripping down the lip’s ledge to the floor,

the woman welcomed the wet of it

to her house.

She said, There’s too much danger in the sun.

It’s lied to me for years, she said,

while it crept up and turned its key in my face.