Face scrubbed clean,
camera poised
angled for the best shot
full on, or profile?
Should my hair be neat,
or tousled to go with
the bare skinned
just up look?
Picture posted
three hundred likes
friends nominated,
my heart thumps
with good feelings
perhaps my £3 have
saved a life.
I choose to hide
the stories of
real life struggles
the photos
of mastectomy scars,
heads bald and faces
bare of eyebrows and lashes
my body has not been ravaged
by a disease, and its cure
that leaves me
skin and bone, hairless
drawn and exhausted.
No I have done my bit
posted my photo, sent the cash
my selfie for cancer is
as far as I want to go
as much as I want to know
I've told the world
I support the research
but I cannot bear to
see the truth.
©Niamh Hill
