The Intersection of Gynecology and Girlhood

by Hailie Cochran

…the womb [is] a female viscus closely resembling an animal, for it is moved of itself hither and thither…in a word, it is altogether erratic…it is like an animal within an animal.
Aretaeus of Cappadocia, On the Causes and Symptoms of Acute Diseases—Book II, Ch. XI: On Hysterical Suffocation

When Kaylie got her IUD, a cold-
fingered doctor jammed the thing
into her cervix without any anesthetic— 
told her to take Tylenol before and
after. She bled out for weeks—every
day for a whole month she bled

through thick denim, twin-XL
mattress, fishnet stockings, multiple
super-plus tampons, her hands—
enough blood to last four moons,
all gone in one. She bought a fish
made of iron—boiled it with pasta

to remedy the new fainting spells. 
I gave her the last of my vitamins
and let her hog the heating pad until 
my own animal started its flood.
To distract from our pains, we
took turns digging hungry fingers

into each other’s shoulders, spines—
each patch of taut skin becoming soil,
fertile land—not to own—but to sow
life back into ourselves—it takes
a village platitude ringing true in tune
with a laugh-track-sitcom theme song,

in time with our aging like the wine
boxed on our coffee table and sloshing
out of our thrifted mugs as we play
telephone with fluffy campus gossip
and get high on hair dye fumes— 
singing, off-key, I’ll be there for you

,