Umbilical; Attached
My navel piercing
reminds me that I might, someday, be a mother
this fresh foreign thing covered in my blood
forcing me to use an elastic band to close my jeans
reminds me that
my mother said
never get one
because when your belly stretches
the scarred hole stretches too
too many reminders of being big and round and planetary
wonder if she regrets it,
wonder if I will too.
Catie Prospero McGuire is a senior English major at SUNY Geneseo with a concentration in creative writing and minors in history and ethics & values in society. She originally hails from New Jersey and her preferred genre is poetry.