[00:00:00] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Joan Baranow, PhD, teaches in the MFA creative writing program at Dominican University in California. Her poetry has appeared in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and also in the Paris Review. The poem she sent us, "Catch and Release," offers a new perspective on the process leading to a breast biopsy.
[00:00:19] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: "Catch and release"
[00:00:21] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: You're allowed to breathe in intervals.
[00:00:24] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Women you'll never see again
[00:00:25] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: take an interest in your breast.
[00:00:28] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: They have careful hands. They understand
[00:00:31] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: where to aim the dart.
[00:00:33] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: The dart snags red minnows of tissue.
[00:00:36] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: They hook your tumor,
[00:00:38] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: string through a hole
[00:00:39] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: punched in a paper cup.
[00:00:41] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: The surgeon a fisher of women,
[00:00:43] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: yourself a river
[00:00:45] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: invaded by unlikely species --
[00:00:47] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Asian carp below the Ohio
[00:00:50] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: shoving aside the benign bass.
[00:00:53] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: She traces her line,
[00:00:55] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: splits the surface, scoops
[00:00:57] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: with a sharp net.
[00:00:59] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: You lie stilled in your flow, caught briefly,
[00:01:03] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: before you're sewn up, and let go.
