Fat And Skinny

Another cold morning

Ominous black shadows

Surround the stillness

Of the Great Depression.

Mother whirls around me,

Stained housecoat flapping,

Shamanistic drumming on my back:

Eat,eat,eat,eat,

Don't you know

Children in Europe are starving?

I gag on gooey boiled eggs,

Don't like most food anymore,

Hair and teeth are falling out.

Mother chases me around the block,

Sure an enema will be the cure.

Big brother is really obese,

Schoolyard bullies taunt:

"Stay away from fatso,

That blimp is bigger than

The giant balloons

At the Macy Day parade.

He'll crush you like a Sherman tank".

The venomous purity

Of children's cruelty.

School nurse makes a house call.

"Is this where fat and skinny live?"

siblings, strangers to each other,

hating food and loving food,

opposing strategies to scarcity.