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Humanities

For Serena Williams, and my mother

Terese Mason Pierre
CMAJ December 02, 2019 191 (48) E1337; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.190849
Terese Mason Pierre
Toronto, Ont.
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Black skin

White coat

No matter the lifetime, cotton hair

is parted and shaved. The crowning

achievement of womanhood is the

attention of the operating table,

legs splayed, an offering to

nitrile glove and silver scope.

History dilating, she cries

alongside her burgeoning womb,

skin no thicker than her oppressors.

She is her body and hundreds

of other bodies, slick in water,

in light — a child, and a clot

to compress with black tulle,

the uplifted gaze of the world.

Had ears opened, maybe her mothers

would have guided her with a strength

that I am reminded warrants

jealousy, irreducible to Latin.

But an eleven of ten

remains a four.

Figure1
Image courtesy of iStock.com/vaitekune

Footnotes

  • This article has been peer reviewed.

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Canadian Medical Association Journal: 191 (48)
CMAJ
Vol. 191, Issue 48
2 Dec 2019
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For Serena Williams, and my mother
Terese Mason Pierre
CMAJ Dec 2019, 191 (48) E1337; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.190849

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For Serena Williams, and my mother
Terese Mason Pierre
CMAJ Dec 2019, 191 (48) E1337; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.190849
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Copyright 2019, Joule Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

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