Published on: 12/18/2014
Hard Wired

The body space
the angled bones

freed from heavy cushions
calorie counting down

to zero no photo
shopping In Real Life

must shave the too-much
metabolically

Runways populated by sticks
of figures, shrinking

celebrities
to blame

Shall we write a strong letter
to the broadcastopshere in whose image

we say DNA must be
responsible for her own

brain that is the gun
and her own

environment that is the trigger
and her own

emotional trauma
that is the bullet

the trajectory of which
comes from her

and back into her
too emaciated

to withstand the blow

Published on: 12/15/2014
On Being Married to An Eating Disorder

She's not so obvious
as to cut a hamburger into quarters
eat one, save the other three,
for a fantastical futuristic era
in which she would understand
how thin she is.
But she still leaves
food on her plate to demonstrate
her rejection of surfeit,
her acceptance of hunger.

Research asserts
when other people see a photo of cake,
their brains light up in their
pleasure centers.
Looking at a mere picture of chocolate
her brain's judgment arenas
go wild.
And she wades into a deep morass
of neuro-assessment for the real thing,
sorting through the votes for
permission, denial.

What attends every bite she takes
in that unforgiving brain,
that hard perfecter of self?
When the dinner bell rings,
So many synapses at roll-call.