“Yin & Yang” © Alexander Limarev

 

Doctor Visit During the Pandemic

When she must make me vulnerable.
When she unhooks the paper mask
and here is my lips and tongue.

My face disrobed. She never warns me.
She touches my chin with an ungloved hand.

Tomorrow I will feel alarmed I allowed
her this moment, that I surrendered
like a child to her consideration.

I leave with a bag of pills.
I leave into an artificial light

down an unfamiliar hall and I wonder
when she returns home how long
she stands in front of the mirror

examining the face that all her days
meets the breath of strangers.

 

Lauren Davis is the author of Home Beneath the Church, forthcoming from Fernwood Press, and the chapbook Each Wild Thing’s Consent, published by Poetry Wolf Press. She holds an MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars, and she teaches at The Writers’ Workshoppe and Imprint Books. Her work has appeared in over fifty literary publications and anthologies including Prairie Schooner, Spillway, Split Lip Magazine, Ibbetson Street, Ninth Letter and elsewhere.

Alexander Limarev is a freelance artist, mail art artist, curator, poet and photographer from Siberia/Russia. He has participated in more than 800 international projects and exhibitions. His artworks are part of private and museum collections of 63 countries. His artwork and poetry have been featured in various online publications including Killer Whale Journal, TreeHouse Arts, Backchannel and elsewhere.