Poet Megan Lynn Hall escorts us into discomfort and release with her intense impactful poem “On Doctor’s Recommendation”. This scene, in the intimate proximity of a massage, finds the narrator confronting being physically controlled in a stranger’s “uncommonly broad” hands and having to deflect an unwanted sexual advance. Though “On Doctor’s Recommendation” is tense with darkness and violation, it ends in a breath, soft release, vastness. Megan told The Dewdrop this poem examines “the intersections of power, vulnerability, and survival”. She explained, “The poem interrogates forces that seek to control and exploit, … and the ways in which those subjected to these forces endure, resist, and reclaim their agency.”
On Doctor’s Recommendation
| stranger’s hands | uncommonly broad | push molten pleasure | up calf | pause | at knee’s bend | to lift feel him | slide blanket beneath | discreetly | divide body | What kind of pressure | would you like? | tell me | face up | if it’s too much | I depart | released from voice | into hidden space | prescribed luxury liquefy | become singing | bowl | trickle of harp | relax | into payment | for touch | into trained inhale a scandal | faintly spearmint | tension swallows | past shoulders | we | sink lower | consider | deeper tissue trigger points | dissolve | here | in this hour | of care | a darkened room | now familiar | fingers slip from scalp | signal | session’s end | but | he presses | upward | my chin | tilts our eyes | to contact | holds confusion | Do you want me | to do more? | chambers hover | breath contracts | a thick whisper | very attracted | stiffens grip | to you | aroused | like walls | tighten | at nape | no | longer dressed | to comfort nude skin | site of negotiation | feign flattery | for what? | deflection | gracious | offer declined | practice ensures passage | from closed door | danger | clicks behind him | drag back | to self | stand | in oiled shame | cheerful mask | secure | for he who | threatens | waits | in pleasantry | lavender lotion| parting gift | a small consolation | recoil | smile | forget to tip | line of highway | silence | exhale | realize become open air |
Megan Lynn Hall
Megan Lynn Hall is a creative writing PhD student at Georgia State University. She works to sharpen the bones of womanhood with poetry that speaks of desire, vulnerability, and the reclamation of power. Her work has appeared in Yalobusha Review, Inkwell Journal, Beyond Words Magazine, and elsewhere.
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Wonderful ♥️
wow, that to me was an autopsy of a pelvic exam. intricate, vulnerable, and inside the mind of the receiver. Just my take on it Megan; but what do I know being a male. Definitely let me into the mind of the recipient.