Excavated
Scar contours stretch
across a fleshless chest.
A bulbous cavity,
flesh that was.
A cursive seam scored
from breast to armpit.
Writ large: I am alive
PHILIPPA RAMSDEN is retired and enjoys writing, reading, and taking part in workshops locally and online. She spent almost two decades living and working in Nepal, Mongolia, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Rwanda which continues to provide an important source of memories and material (as does a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment while living in Myanmar in 2009). She returned to Scotland in 2017 and has settled in East Lothian. Her poem 'Unexpectedly' selected by the Scottish Book Trust to be included in the book they publish annually as part of Book Week Scotland.
