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      September 19, 2019Questions My Husband Doesn’t Ask HimselfElizabeth McMunn-Tetangco

      If my neck is my second
      face, what is my knee?
       
      Does this top ride up too much
      when I bike in?
       
      How do you learn, at first,
      you’re getting double chins?
       
      People say, when you’re a woman,
      you’ve lost weight!
       
      People say, it ain’t that bad, and
      I don’t think that much
       
      will fit,
      when you buy bricks, when you bought
       
      bricks at least ten times
      in the same car,
       
      when you know that
      they’ll fit just
      fine.
       
      How do you know
      when all the bricks will be
      enough?
       
      When I was young I swam
      at school, hearing my breath
      make frantic
       
      bubbles, watching how the line
      of tile jerked back and forth.
       
      I would see how my arms blurred
       
      just like wet paint
       
      would think of songs that I could play
      when I got home
       
      would feel the tight
      and the slow ache
       
      and I would eat
      and eat
      and eat
       
      to fill that pool.

      from Poets Respond

      Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco

      “This is responding to the story about the high school swimmer who was disqualified from winning her meet because her suit rode up. It made me think about double standards for women, and about how it feels like you just can’t win.”