a F A T medley
           After Sheila Maldonado

“When you tell me to write-resist, What I read is-is-rest”

Let it all go
Let the folds unfold
Hunger becomes hungrier if you fight it
Rest from mental calorie counting
Drink the juice without reading its sugar content
Celebrate your friend’s birthday and eat the cake

Let your body
B R E A T H E
Release your belly
The tight pants
The oversized shirts
The black

“I want to cut my heart out of my chest be my own offering”

Dear body
I give you
You
This rushing river
This lullaby breath
This soft place to land

“Disappearing comes easily to our bloodline”

We
The thick blooded
The carriers of other’s
Opinions
Invalid concerns
Hate
Masked as suggestions
Our mouths brine filled to the brim

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After Atticus
           -“I’m tired of their stories, let's write our own.” -


I swallow their poison
sugary-sweet
their shakes
their perfect sizes
their rules on my tongue
swish swish swishing in my belly


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They Didn't Know We Were Water

They swim within our depths in search of fun
thrash in our delicate splendor
Haphazardly wipe us off their navels
Drink us in furious gulps to quench their thirst

We escape from the corners of their mouths

Water finds a way
to gather
become whole
again