Scar

Touch: The Journal of Healing

Scar

by Christine Klocek-Lim

Such a surprise

this thin silver

on baby skin,

this long, raised line.

I cannot stop

my finger’s slide

along its soft

path—it points up

to your sweet face

where you smile

at my silly

noises, my lips

that hug your cheeks

and smooth the dent

in your belly

where the drain left

your imperfect

body perfect.

The scar’s healed,

not wet, weeping

blood and my tears.

Do you know how

my heart broke when

you were born? One

last push sent you

into the air —

congenital

heart defect, a

strange word became

ordinary.

Now your blue skin,

your fingertips

and lips are warm.

You coo at me

when I kiss you.

Your heart is per-

fect even though

your skin is not.

Christine Klocek-Lim received the 2009 Ellen La Forge Memorial Prize in poetry. Her poetry was featured as the Editor’s Choice in the September 2011 issue of Touch: The Journal of Healing. She has four chapbooks: How to photograph the heart (The Lives You Touch Publications), The book of small treasures (Seven Kitchens Press), Cloud Studies - a sonnet sequence (Whale Sound Audio Chapbooks), and Ballroom — a love story (Flutter Press). She is editor of Autumn Sky Poetry and her website is november sky.