a young girl watches her
mother faint
from lack of food
not because the fridge is empty
but because her mother chooses to leave her belly so
and in two years time
this girl will exercise in her room
and stop eating breakfast
and lunch
because she is disgusted at the way her thighs touch
she doesn’t know what it means
to hate her body
she only knows dissatisfaction in
her bones
Photo Credit: HANAKIA Flickr via Compfight cc
Amanda Linsmeier
Amanda Linsmeier is the author of Ditch Flowers and Beach Glass & Other Broken Things. Her writing has been featured in Portage Magazine, Literary Mama, and Brain, Child Magazine. Besides writing Women’s Fiction, she loves reading and writing fables, fairy tales, and fantasy, and sometimes she pretends her Hogwarts letter is still coming. When she’s not writing, she works part-time at her local library and brings home more books than she has time to read. Amanda lives in the countryside, surrounded by trees, with her family, two dogs, and two half-wild cats. For her, writing is the best kind of magic, and her work is heavily influenced by mysterious women, nature, and beautiful images and fueled with lots of iced coffee and background music. She’s the kind of monster who dog-ears book pages, and she has read her favorite book, Beauty by Robin McKinley, probably a hundred times. She loves pizza, tattoos, shopping, and pretty much anything French.
Powerful and at an perfect pace and rhythm.
Really good stuff! ….and the cycle goes on. -D.