Waterboarding

Would you love me more 
if this body was thinner 
his thinning hair thicker
her thickness less sexy
their sexiness more tame
his tameness more fierce
my fierceness less fiery 
her fire more water
our watered down selves 
so dampened
that we drown ourselves 
without seeing you’re 
holding our heads underwater 

—

April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 2 prompt: what does the future hold 

Aphrodite

Her soft belly

and sagging breasts

adorn museum walls

we scurry

past embarrassed by

her audacity to

be fat and

adored, a diety

whose gifts we

scorn because we

have forgotten how

to love our

own bodies, preferring 

to chisel away 

our curves for 

the hard angles 

that look better

on Instagram

—
April PAD Poetic Asides Day 2 - portrait

If I were 5

In a world of my

own making, I 

stand before the mirror mesmerized

Me: age 5

transfixed by my own face

and blissfully ignorant

of my bloated belly, shaking 

narrow, boyish hips 

that will one day become 

the fabulous curves
I'm ashamed to flaunt, the
foundation of a

woman's body I can't seem
to face in
the mirror, trapped in a

world of my own making

---

If I Were prompt on Poetry Jam