Dolly Lemke

DOCTOR BLAIR ISN’T FOND OF WOMEN

He won’t make eye contact
will not share more information than is necessary
prefers to keep them quiet

He makes women feel their own insides
tells them they need to take better care

He knows they are pertinent to his experiments

Pours acid on their growths prescribes steroid cream
self-medication builds up the tissue’s resistance

can count on the annual appointments for new material
new mothers

Dolly Lemke lives and writes in Chicago where she hosts The Dollhouse Reading Series. Her poems can be found in Columbia Poetry Review<, data-preserve-html-node="true" Best American Poetry 2010, and Super Arrow.