I just have two more.
This is called "The Nurse Lifts the Clipboard
and Replaces All Your Vital Signs."
The nurse lifts the clipboard and replaces
all your vital signs with scratch and sniff stickers.
You undress in front of her because your body
looks like hers.
She stuffs her purse in your mouth full of blue paper gowns.
It feels like the Eucharist melting on your tongue
or sleeping so long your legs forget
how they're supposed to work.
Every metal object in this room hurts your eyes and has a name.
Everybody knows except for you.
The nurse holds something to your heart,
you call severed elephant trunk, wilted flower.
She hands your boxers to the doctor
and asks if you'll be going under the knife today.
She loves how those words feel against her teeth.
It's her favorite phrase.
Her lips are strawberry red like they've gone under the knife.
You want to say this, but you say nothing.
The doctor raises an anatomically correct penis
to his lips and does a waltz.
You demand his credentials.
He undoes his belt and begins to cry.
At that very moment, you realize you haven't
shaved your legs in years.
The doctor blows his nose into your boxers,
while the nurse re-enacts the video your fifth grade
class watched on how boys and girls love
each other the right way with the right parts.
You worry the doctor will find out you have the wrong parts.
If he ever stops crying, he will give you the medicine.
You want to be the medicine.
You want to be sleeping so long your legs forget how they're
supposed to be hairless.
The nurse licks a sticker until her mouth purples like a wound.
The doctor scratches and scratches
till his fingers bleed.
And the room smells great.
And the chart reads female.
And the doctor wants to know why you've changed your name
and whose underwear he's holding.