No Evidence of Disease
Face down, breasts out / there’s an intimacy to how / the radiologist probes / my suspicious finding / with needles, a vacuum, pincers / tools to make medical knowledge / of the body / all the soft parts of me / moving through / this hollow white tube / patient declines claustrophobia / the sounds of the machine / all around me / turn up / shell out / mechanical and abrupt / patient has been informed / of potential risks / like the indignity / of a Spotify ad / The Ultimate Car Wash Experience / through which I hear the radiologist / teaching the technicians a lesson / their first biopsy / the techs are eager students / but nervous / their fingers fumbling over me / meanwhile, at the breast, a needle delivers / the poetry of local anesthetic / patient has trouble staying still / I hold my breath as the breast transforms / from tissue to specimen / as it leaves the body / in the vessel of the surgical tool / differential diagnosis / flesh replaced by metal fragment / patient has extremely dense breasts / draped in antiseptic wind / as if through a tunnel / the magnet grinds on / searching inside me / in the glow of images / for what might be / or become 🌿
Sarah Roth
Genetic counselor and PhD student. Diagnosed at 33. IDC, Stage I, ER+, PR+, BRCA1.
Sarah lives and writes in Baltimore, where she is editor-in-chief of Tendon at JHU’s Center for Medical Humanities & Social Medicine. Shereceived a BRCA1 diagnosis in her early twenties and has been involved with hereditary cancer patient advocacy and research since then. After years in surveillance, while preparing for a preventative mastectomy, she was diagnosed with an early breast cancer.
“No Evidence of Disease” was published in Wildfire Journal’s 2025 “Body” issue. Read the full issue; available in the shop and subscribers’ library.