FAT

"Hey" he pokes her stomach

"fat" he laughs, she pretends to laugh.

"You are beautiful." she repeats,

again and again but his words keep on sinking in.

She goes home, he forgets, but his jokes can't help but persist.

"Maybe if I just cut along the dotted lines"

Slim my thighs, she wants to grab a knife.

"No!" she cries, "I am stronger than this"

her mantra repeating, her head spinning.

She wakes up to this, she breathes for this.

Like her mom always says,

"I'm stronger than this."