PenWomanShip

You fought to be thin.

I remember your Richard Simmons Aerobic Tapes
and tummy tucks into butt hugging blue jeans,
your squeeze in baby doll panties
and girdles with hooks that pinched your belly button.

You thought all you had to do was suck it in
and feel in the space with ice cream;
no one would see your chubby chase
apple dumplings and sugar plumps
I was the one who said,
You know you’re beautiful the way you are.
Girl, just let it all hang out.

I know you need to feel thin
like I need to feel good about being thinner,
than all my heavy set friends,
so thin that every word that means fat
would be too big for you
and you could share a bed with the entire world,
feel your rolls spread and smooth out,
when you rise out your chair.

You're tired of filling in ugly questionnaires
life-size pain and tricking mirrors,
holding your chin ups, so UP
until your over me and around
every other being and those that can bare
their broad back sides.

If only you could bare their close inspections
then you could bare anything.

You earned a persona
to push in my face, a breast boost,
liposuction and suits with vertical stripes.

In your gut,
you know it's not those things
that can lift you higher.

If I could take your defecations of self love
bleak receptions jumping my lines
and iron blocks that tear-drop
on my thoughts of this day
In which I’m It, I would and toast not
to what makes us beautiful but real
and never choke our bond or compare scales.

All I ask of you,
is to let me stay in the seat of my soul
where I feel beautiful even if you don't.
and let me catch you when your arches fall.

I’m sorry that I can’t take off,
what you have put on but I don’t deserve
to have you pick apart, what I have put together.