The Story of a Scar

I started a creative writing class at Spring Creek, the maximum security prison where I recently started to work as an Education Coordinator.

The last assignment I gave the group of fifteen men, some of whom are serving life sentences, was to write the story behind a scar, theirs or someone else's, fact or fiction, poetry or prose.

The men shared a wide range of stories and poems on everything from literal scars on their bodies (or those they hurt) to scars of the heart.

Here is my response to the assignment:

C-Section Revision

There's a line on my body, like train tracks to motherhood, like the flat line of your heart, when your early start to life preceded your lungs' ability to breathe, when I ceased being pregnant despite four more months to go, when I was forced to let go

I can show you a border line that re-aligns before and after parenthood-- like the straight rough wood of a Spruce tree, like a crack in the ice of predictability-- from where the doctor cut you free, a deep brown scar, not far from the source

I no longer curse the ragged line but see it as an entry sign, an explanation point on my midline, to say I will lay beneath a knife for your life

let scrubbed hands cut fat, slice muscle, splay myself open on the table, face the unstable blade of new beginnings

stretch beyond repair, become more than a vessel, more than a cradle, more than a tunnel, but a brand new opening

for you to begin

Comments

[Essie]

Christy, this is a lovely, moving piece. I hope we’ll hear more about your work at the prison. How kind of you to do this work...I hope you find it satisfying.

[Christy]

Thank you Essie! I'm still figuring out what I can and can not write about my work at the prison. I do enjoy it so far and find myself learning so much from the inmates and correctional officers.

[Kate]

As always a beautifully written piece. I'm so excited for you about your creative writing class there. I can only imagine the emotional intensity of hearing their stories. What a powerful outlet to share with them.