Missed Diagnosis

She was dry as a gun barrel and just as cool
when we tried to join the way we had for years.
Nothing but pain that colorless fall
we held each other naked in the dark.
Doctors told her It's a tipped womb
though they knew she never slept,
knew she smoked sixty cigarettes a day,
watched her jump when the door clicked closed.

After they KY'd their speculum home
she could only lie there and feel him
root inside her, the revolver in her mouth,
his sulfur stench, whiskey breath,
and she began to sweat
like that hot night in August
when the screen bumped open
and she woke to the stink.
Tipped womb they told her, You'll be fine in no time.
© CME LLC
4/01
Read more of Dr. Berlin's work.