Double Entendre 

The doctor says you’ll have to
remove your pants.  You’re 
there in the exam room with 
him  and his intern.  She’s young.  
Blonde.  Her eager eyes sparkle 
as she hovers beside him.

“Do you mind if she’s in here for this?”
the doctor asks.  “She’s got
several requirements
I don’t want her to miss.”

The intern clutches a clipboard.
You imagine a neatly typed checklist. 
This next task looms at the bottom
next to a barren, untouched little box.

It’s okay with you.  The doctor probes 
and talks his way through several 
tender angles and steps aside.  The intern 
reaches for a glove, and you realize too late 
that the ‘here’ she’s going to be ‘in’ 
is much more than the exam room.

Jeff Burd works as a high school English teacher in the north suburbs of Chicago. Mr. Burd spends a lot of time writing and thinking about writing, and worrying about not writing and thinking about writing.