QUESTIONS MY HUSBAND DOESN’T ASK HIMSELF
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
September 19, 2019
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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.”
