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Poetry of Issue 9: Full Body Exam

Full Body Exam

The beautiful Dr. Barbara Baxter swept into the exam room, her

            flaxen hair draped over her white doctor’s coat.

She was as beautiful as I remembered from my first visit in which

            she recommended that I receive a “full body exam.”

She asked if I had any Irish in me because, I thought, Irish skin

            incubates the big C. I regretfully admitted that I did have

Irish in me. She laughed and began her examination. She eased

            down the top of my paper gown while telling me, in her

sing-song voice that, after she took her boards in dermatology,

            the examiners played recorded bagpipe music.

“Are bagpipes Irish or Scottish? she wondered, as I felt her hands

            move down to my shorts. “It upset some people to hear bagpipe

music after the exam,” she purred, and peeled off my tighty-whities.

            She studied my business, if you know what I mean, and then,

as if asking me to pass the salt said, “Would you pick up your penis

            so I can look underneath it?” She wants me to turn it over?

I thought. Well, if she grabs my balls, it will flip itself over.

            Then she grabbed my balls with her

unspeakably soft hands and noted that they sported some purple moles, but

            “nothing to worry about.” Frantic to prevent the inevitable, I said,

“Did you know that the English hated bagpipes so much they considered them

            weapons of war?” She smiled, “There’s a mole on your thigh, next to

your scrotum,” she said, while still cupping my jewels. “Here, look at it.” I raised

            my head, beheld the beautiful Dr. Barbara Baxter holding my nugget pouch

in one hand, while pointing to the mole on my thigh with the other. “I see it,”

            I lied, and lowered my head. “Do they play bagpipes only at funerals?”

she asked, a sugary lilt to her voice. “Oh no,” I gulped, trying to control my quivering 

            voice, “they play them at weddings, at all occasions.” “Turn over on your tummy

please,” the beautiful Dr. Barbara Baxter said. I obeyed and felt her hands nudge down

            my skivvies again. “You have a mole on each buttock,” she said, gently replacing

my underpants. “It’s nothing to worry about.” Her fingers on my hiney caused

            my lips to tremble, my toes to twitch. Had there been a power outage

my body could have served as an emergency generator. After my exam, the beautiful

            Dr. Barbara Baxter gave me extra samples of hand and body lotion.

How precious these emollients were to me—especially now. As a token of undying gratitude,

            I promised, as we parted, to send her a CD of bagpipe music.

by Charlie Brice

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