Delving into Sheffield Flourish’s theme of ‘You are what you eat’, Becky Mairi Farrell lets her body speak.
You Are What You Eat
Am I chips?
Perhaps I’m peanut butter sandwiches.
Sometimes, maybe, I’m mango.
I am body.
I am present and undeniably solid.
She wants to be ideas, fleeting and swift,
But I weigh her down, I never leave.
She’s the one who leaves,
She’s left me time and again.
She hides somewhere out of sight
Watching.
That is not my option, my purpose.
I tie her to time, I can’t escape.
And my silent testimony is that, neither can she.
I am her memories buried in flesh and bone,
Where she can pretend not to see.
I am body.
I am a convenient receptacle.
These days
She buries more than memories in me.
She eats.
She eats her feelings
Until they’re all swallowed up and gone.
But I am body, I keep no secrets.
So she stares, reproachful,
At the clothes that don’t fit
And the numbers on the scales.
These material things, like me,
Tell inconvenient truths.
She fears us,
We make her ashamed.
Because I am body.
I am what she eats,
Present and solid,
Undeniable.
Swallowed emotions formed into flesh.
Image courtesy of Becky Mairi Farrell
