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THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER
adolescence, that process of
dividing from the rest of the world
splitting like a cell against
parents, away from friends
the isolation of the unfamiliar body
that no longer even remembers itself
but propels upwards,
forgetful.
that year that fathers tremble over, when
daughters become that impossible thing: womanly.
forgetful, I spent a year writing poems
feverish, as if each was the first
about girls, me, and all
the things that happened to those girls, me
and all those poems, monsters the way
adolescence is monstrous
overripe and uncontrollable
like summer or tumors
forgetful, I left
a notebook open.
my father traced my path away from him
through my words, the path I wrote
the doctor towered in front of me,
a man in command
of the way cells
divide upon themselves
watching puberty invade his daughter like a disease
the wild, unchecked growth, the enemy
a 14-year old host vulnerable to foreign bodies
the enemy, the trembling, the bodies
the notebook in his hand
with the words about girls, me, and all
the poems that happened
to a girl, me and all
he said:
"you know who
that girl is,
don't you?
that girl's
a whore."
- Daphne Gottlieb