clavicle protrudes through thin cloth,

cutting her in her sleep.

and at night the crickets soften their song,

just to hear her weep.

she makes a game of counting each rib;

beautiful, translucent skin,

with a jaw sharp as a knife,

proud of a figure wonderfully thin.

calories are punishment;

starvation a comforting drape.

chew your food one hundred times;

suffer the agony of unflattering shape.

measuring tape serpent tightens,

hissing its whisper in your ears,

it’s numeral body suffocating,

as your eyes well with tears.

the reflection is a liar.

a ghastly, gruesome girl,

hollow in all the wrong places;

skin pale as pearl.

as she lay in her coffin,

nothing but decaying bones,

she closes her eyes; sweet release

I am finally home.