for my dear friend in a world made of paper. best of luck.
twenty less pounds
Don’t take my hunger
Fill me instead with fistfuls
Of soil, make me fragrant
Weigh my body with earthsod
But make me weightless
Trim my waistline—beautiful in
The space that I am empty
Make me ephemeral
When I move, know my shadows
Take my longing, but please
Leave the hunger, the will to eat
Handfulls of petals like a reptile
Make me scale-less—take the lines
Of my skin and smooth me slowly
Like a topsheet—on a freshbed in
the evening:make the light from the street
cars seem organic, make it whiter,
with the glow of my new skin,
fill my pockets full of happiness
make it opium: sleep addictive,
wake me when I’m famous,
and the whole world knows my
loveliness—knows my nose bridge
but not my heritage, and the heart
beat of my lover is a whisper
I invented to cure the silence
Make him incredible but not so
Impossible that I never know him,
make my night-dress something hapless
that I untie with my dosage
and remember I was young once,
young and hungry—don’t take my hunger
just fill me up and sew me tighter
make me thin.
—ECW
