On Saturday
– Poetry by Holly Matthews –
I briefly had a crush on the
doctor who administered my vaccine
it was the elixir of biceps and hope
how I suddenly considered the possibility
that we might all survive this godforsaken season
how the convention center was full of fatigues
and folks feeling grateful, floating, smiling
under their masks
how we shuffled from dot to dot
how we treated each other like precious things
touching nothing, tossing the single-use pencil
with which we signed our consent
he flirted with me I think
though I’m grossly out of practice
he asked me about work
made a mental health joke
actually that was the best day
I’d had in a very long time
and maybe it was the morning rollerskating
with my daughter in the school parking lot
that set me up to love Dr Parsons
so brashly for about 10 minutes
it was the sunshine, the glide
the grace of my beautiful girl
the bulk of knee pads
the flash of hair
It was my body remembering
what it once knew about the breeze
It was my legs leaning into their strength
It was the way it only works if you lift your gaze
and focus on where you’d like to go
About the Author – Holly Matthews
Holly M. Matthews was raised on Boggle and clams in Alaska. She now lives In Portland,
Oregon where her days are busy with kids, carpools, worrying, zumba, and private practice as a Mental Health Therapist. This poem was written in a pandemic-era zoom workshop facilitated by poet Christopher Luna
Did you like this poem by Holly Matthews? Then you might also like:
The Identified Patient
What I want the surgeon to know
Sanctuary, and other poems
The Body as Poem
Metaplasia and other poems
This is What Death Does
Where Courage Lives
The Psychiatric Patient Profiled in My Application
Modern Medical Miracles
What the Mirror Says
Writing Myself Alive: An Episodic Poem
Breathing; Love These Lively Things
Oh Emma; Slow Dancing
In the Mirror, For My Mother
Zenstronomy: Zen of Instruction, Godma, Astrophysical Reality
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