FAT GIRL TRILONNET
All the stars go down and I
lie on my back in the yard watching
the light dimming, hearing the break
of branches, of leaves sweeping as eyes
search the black, insects calling,
listening to the swirling lake
where frogs go operatic-like
and my body croons along, catching
itself. Tell me what I can take
away from this forgetting, why
I overlook my body, latching
onto the blues the nighttime makes,
how I avoid the light, my past,
and disappear into the grass.
—from Rattle #73, Fall 2021
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Stephanie Rogers: “‘Fat Girl Trilonnet’ appears in my new book Fat Girl Forms, which explores how it feels to move one’s body in a world not built to hold it; the way society humiliates fat people who don’t conform to conventional standards of beauty; the constant ‘concern’ for the health of fat people, as well as the personal challenges fat women face in both forging romantic relationships and maintaining familial ties in the face of contempt about our bodies. I chose to write the book in form because writing in form sometimes feels like trying to squeeze a fat body into an airplane seat.” (web)
