The Wounded Amazon, by M. Cynthia Cheung

The Wounded Amazon, artist unknown (Rome) 100-200 A.D.

​The Wounded Amazon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 

There are dozens of us, 
my stone sisters and I. Most lack 
some anatomy: a broken-off arm, legs.  
A head. But a small marble breast  
 
usually lies exposed, salvaged. I don’t  
need to see my sisters to know  
their right arms, always lifted  
in warning. Though we stand unhorsed
 
we are always taller than you 
who spring from flesh. Look up,  
and you’ll see the splitting  
wound in our armpits, yet no pain  
 
cut onto our faces. We consort  
with your monsters—like hounds 
we nose out your underbelly,  
your soft secret unease: it’s you 
who are the meat.

M. Cynthia Cheung

M. Cynthia Cheung is a practicing physician in Texas.