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Sep 2014
Eat
Eat baby, please
It’s killing me to watch
While you wither away to nothing
It’s killing me
But you need to know
It’s also killing you
I know the way that full plate
Heaves its weight onto your shoulders
I remember the way you looked down at it
As if you would fall in
And drown in the numbers
I know that you pretend
You’re stomach doesn’t pinch
Or stab you with the hunger
But I see the way
You sit hunched over
Trying to shrink into yourself
Forever trying to make yourself smaller
As if the hunger isn’t
Enough
I know you long for bones
To be the only things
Distending from your skin
But darling
You’re forgetting
That your worth,
Your value
Does not rest in a number
Whether it’s on the back of a box
Or a creaky bathroom scale
You’re forgetting that
Bones are brittle
They break, love
They break
How will I hold you
When my touch could splinter you
When I could snap you in half
How will I shelter you
When that voice festers inside your head
And it rots your thoughts
Your innocent thoughts
Sweetheart, you’re forgetting,
Pushing food around a plate
Won’t give you dignity
And that voice
That voice inside your head
Does not define you
Do you see your eyes, love
When you look in the mirror
Can’t you see the light is gone
From those beautiful eyes of yours
Or do you only see
Failure and flesh
Clinging to your body
Holding on for dear life
As you try so urgently
To shed it from your skin
Please,
Let me remind you
That it’s okay darling
Go ahead,
Pick up that fork
It’s okay
I promise
Trust me when I say
I know
I know it’s hard
I know it hurts
I know it’s not just chewing
That causes you misery
I know that it feels like cotton
Whenever you try to swallow
I know that it’s like a rock, that food
Stubborn as it sits in your stomach
I know it hurts
I know
Just let me remind you
Let me remind you
That its okay, love
To feel
Full
Jen Grimes
Written by
Jen Grimes  Burlington, Vermont
(Burlington, Vermont)   
439
     Elaenor Aisling, Erenn and Ecila
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