The docstring should be _before_ the arg list, not after it:

    (defn before "docstring" [& args] "ignored" "result")
    (defn after [& args] "ignored" "result")
    (meta #'before)
    {:arglists ([& args]), :ns #<Namespace user>, :name before, :end-column 13, :column 1, :doc "docstring", :line 5, :file "NO_SOURCE_FILE", :end-line 5}
    (meta #'after)
    {:arglists ([& args]), :ns #<Namespace user>, :name after, :end-column 12, :column 1, :line 7, :file "NO_SOURCE_FILE", :end-line 7}