(The One I Will Not Name) Goes to the Doctor

Aleph Altman-Mills

He put his stethoscope
to her chest
and heard the sound
of nails being filed.
He looked in her ears
and saw smoke stains.
He looked in her eyes
and saw bear traps.
He told her to say “Ahhh…”
It came out “Uggg…”
and a family of mosquitoes
flew out from beneath her tongue.
He took an X-ray.
It looked like a black hole.
He took a blood draw
and got a vial of iron filings.
He put the thermometer in her mouth.
It rung with cold.
The glass broke,
and she swallowed.

© Aleph Altman-Mills

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Aleph Altman-Mills is an autistic writer who has been published in The Legendary, Words Dance, and Mobius, among others. Aleph blogs and posts poetry snippets at really-fucking-confused.tumblr.com.