Cliterature
 
Brooke Bailey holds a B.A. in English from Appalachian State University.  Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in various publications, including Sidereality, Defenestration, Lavender Review, and twenty20 Journal.  When she is not writing, she works as a corporate trainer in the insurance industry.

Brooke Bailey

Fluctuate

They say a woman’s body is always

shape shifting, the weight will

fluctuate, perhaps drastically

in the matter of only several days.

 

Saturday

after a night of heavy

binge drinking, I am 145,

barely alive and bleary eyed. I

can’t stand still for long

in front of the mirror

with my sweating

and stumbling.

 

the heat the rum creates

kills the calories

when my body is its own

standing room only

sauna.

 

Sunday

147.    I would like to exfoliate

a pound off of every problem area

but sugar scrub was exiled

from my bathroom when the

ants came marching in, sniffing

and hungry with a mean

Bath and Body Works craving.

 

I am sympathetic to their dilemma

despite their intentions.

 

Monday

these days are already

dreaded enough

without a weigh in.

today what weighs heavy

is my general

indifference

to this experiment.

 

Tuesday

150 is a number I can

appreciate.  easily divided

by increments of five, decided

and sturdy like my hips

when both my feet

are firmly planted.

 

despite not liking 150

I know it's a number

that won't stand for being bullied.

 

Wednesday

152.  too much of something good

can be a bad thing but don’t tell me

that when I give into the tiramisu

I’ve been eyeing.  Trying to stop

is like telling a lover five more minutes

in bed in the morning

when the alarm is blaring...

which brings us to

 

Thursday

149 is the number I would

have seen on the scale if

I had stepped on it

but ignorance is bliss

and a weigh in would kill

the possibility of morning sex.

 

as we know from my numbers,

I do not abstain

from indulgence.

 

is for coffee drinking and coffee is

a diuretic and if I go on a liquid diet

today that starts with dark roast

and ends with dark ale maybe I’ll be

back at last week’s 145 if I combine that

routine with some cardio

dancing.