the hunger is eating me up from inside beneath my eyes are shadows - naked before the mirror ribs and hips peering through creamy skin. i know it is wrong - i put the plate before me like a sacrament, swallow every mouthful. but this is not that hunger, this is not fuel enough. while i feed this flesh, the thing inside claws at its cage. hungry body, hungry mind - i am on the enemy's side. August 29, 1995 © Lela Kaunitz