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          Surfacing
          By Lisa M. Zaran

          She bought into the hype
          that states, nothing tastes
          as good as thin feels.
          Proving on this she decided
          nothing tastes worth eating.

          So she didn't or when she did
          rectified it by pointing a finger
          at the back of her throat.

          She equated thinness with beauty
          and so, when the flesh of her face
          began falling away so the skin grew
          taut, it's beauty stretched thin like
          canvas over bone

          and when her collarbones began
          resembling the sinking part of an
          anchor, she thought these good
          things, steps in her right direction.

          Blind to everyone and everything
          except her own reflection she never
          noticed the wide-eyed stares from
          strangers or the gaping mouths
          of her family members. She thought
          nobody was looking.

          As her weight went down her symptoms
          increased. Hair loss, sallow skin, the last
          of her menstrual cycles. Growing smaller
          she also grew tired and began napping
          at all hours, dreaming herself a lithe mermaid,

          the pounds skimming off her frame
          like silver finned fish before bellying away.
          Her parents never surrendered or rendered
          her hopeless, force feeding her spoonfuls
          of their aching hearts, but, they did agree
          that she was drowning and pinned their
          hopes on the myth that even a body whose
          drowned, surely, must surface again.

          © Copyright 2001, Lisa M. Zaran




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Document last modified on: 11/05/2004

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