To my well-meaning doctor of many years

National/Global Poetry Writing Month, Day 2. Note: my doctor is very good at her job. But I don't think she was trained to treat pod-people.

I really wanted to use this image of Donald Sutherland pointing and screeching in pod-language from “Invasion of the Body-Snatchers” (the 1978 version), but I worry about breaking copyright rules. So here’s one of my youngest son’s most hilarious pictures to date. Working title: “Grinning Robot Hides Behind Tree and Tries to Lure Human onto His Evil Rocket.”

From NaPoWriMo.net: “And now for our daily prompt…. Anne Carson is a Canadian poet and essayist known for her contemporary translations of Sappho and other ancient Greek writers. For example, consider this version of Sappho’s Fragment 58, to which Carson has added a modern song-title, enhancing the strange, time-defying quality of the translation. And just as many songs do, the poem directly addresses a person or group – in this case, the Muses. Taking Carson’s translation as an example, we challenge you to write a poem that directly addresses someone, and that includes a made-up word, an odd/unusual simile, a statement of “fact,” and something that seems out of place in time (like a Sonny & Cher song in a poem about a Greek myth).”

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When I tell you that I can't have a life 
during my period—flooded and huddled, pain 
raking down my legs like I’m being body-snatched,
tendrils snaking through each limb 
until I am all plant, no skeleton—

you grimace and chirp, “That’s not good!” 
and try to brainstorm for me, a doctor using 
Doctor Google, silver hair swinging forward 
as you tap the keys, wondering if I have considered 
using this or that. 

I have considered all of it 
and done none of it
because my alien body, pod-peopled as it is
views most medications 
as a threat to its reign. 

I'm already conquered. I point and scream.