Anorexia

A forbidden food is silly

but demonic and understandable

on a Tuesday when you clock in

(If people can turn clock into a verb for such

nefarious purposes, they need to stay away from my sofa and window.)

and you feel five feet wide and are at least 1.

Chocolate bars are exotic and exciting. Do not listen to

the pizza. He will charm you out of your 2s and into 10s.

Eat your salad.

It wants to die,

is dying,

wants you to follow along.

Ignore the demeaning soda. It hates you.

Your teeth whither.

Why are all the women in bigger sizes so much smaller than you?

Your bones shrink at the reproach.

The Scent Radius of a Rose as a Unit of Measurement

The scent radius of a rose as a unit of measurement.

My smile weighs too much,

crumbles off my face.

I’m sick of fried hair and unstoppable worry.

My secrets hate me and my eyes betray me.

On the beaches are boxes of life

watching the great red shipping containers float on the  horizon.

Simply put

I have no allies I have not bought

And I drink old snow.

Innocence Threatened – Xhosa/Afrikaans Project

Poem in the original English, followed by translations to Xhosa and Afrikaans and back.

Blue light chases me.

My soul is cold,

spirit still dreaming.

In a meadow I roll down the hillocks

over and over,

my little sear suckered skirt frilly

over my still narrow hips.

A movie an angel might wish to watch

or a pederast.

 

Translation and edit:

In the meadow I roll down the hillock

my short skirt ruffled.

On my stretching back now,

a starlet with one hell of a fan.