Adventures in String Bean Town

Dad has a friend

with a daughter like me.

She takes me to a group

for anorexics-slash-bulimics

who want to get better.

Held at a hospital

each member

more skeletal than the next

sizing each other up.

There is good healthy discussion,

but talk is cheap

and cannot mask

what is really

The Big Competition.

Who is thinnest?

Closest to death?

This one

with a wasted face

or that one

with the thinning hair.

All skinnier than you.

One girl with big pumpkin cheeks

is so sickly looking

with her spindly limbs

that it is difficult not to admire her.

Perfect ten across all judges.

She proudly models

hospital scrubs, slippers, bracelet.

So committed she is committed.

She definitely wins,

which is hard on me,

The big loser in the group.

Barely below-average in weight,

hunched over my orange plastic chair

waiting for this pageant to end.