Every week I step on the tired scale
wondering why I want to lose
parts of myself.
I open the refrigerator door just to look:
It’s yellow light shines on my neat rows
of sleeping children.
The other people at the party
indulge in their red velvet and wedding cake,
as I admire my lonely plate of self-control.
I ask the waiter for a to-go box,
even when my stomach is
still singing its ravenous song.
Once I’m alone, I finish my food in the car.
Sometimes I eat to feel something
going in that doesn’t expect anything back.
Lori Werner is a poet from Savannah, Georgia. She graduated from Armstrong Atlantic State University with a degree in History. Her influences are southern gothic literature, anything Americana, and Joanna Newsom.
Natalie Chyi is an 18-year-old from Hong Kong who has recently moved to London, where she will be studying law for the next three years. She started photography to capture moments and pretty things/people/light/scenes as she sees them, and that idea is what continues to fuel all of her work. Find more of her work on nataliechyi.com, Facebook, or Tumblr.