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transitive erasures

by Katharine Blair

Excised Expertise

Excised Expertise is an erasure poem excavated from the text of the psychological assessment letter Katharine Blair was required to have in order to have her mastectomy designated an insurable procedure. All identifying information has been obscured using thick lines of solid black ink as has much of the text.

, DOB

Dear Medical Team,

I am _________ 
I would like a mastectomy. I am
this client. I have been non-
person.
It is my opinion that the only effective treatment is
psychotherapeutic and medical understanding
of the risks involved
with interventions demonstrated to distress.
In my opinion, the standards of care
have questions.

Transitive Erasure

Transitive Erasure is distilled from the text of a medication package insert from a vial of Testosterone Cypionate. The original is light tan in colour, and creased in a rough grid from having come folded many times over to fit in the box. The majority of the text has been obscured by thick lines of solid black.

Testosterone Cypionate Injection, USP
name

the testosterone cypionate molecule


available in two,
each
          (as preservative)
each
          (as preservative)
responsible for male sex
                    for maintenance
of the seminal
body
for the eventual termination.
fusion may cause
growth
and termination of growth,
release
inhibited.
less
than free,
bound
and free.
free
and bound.
and free.

Header image credit: Katharine Blair

writer • poet • mother • tired • hungry • scared [reversed] Katharine Blair is coEIC of <i>Corporeal</i>. She tweets as @katharine_blair

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