Photo by Arnaldo Aldana on Unsplash
There I was,
hunkered down in the cabbage patch
the girl with the bloated "before" tummy and
concave "after" arch, smiling at me
with the curve of a rib
on Instagram.
She slept in a vegetable patch, the post read.
I nestled my head between the boulderous brassicas,
shielded my face from the gawking stars
whose piercing eyes and words sliced at me,
whispering to one another
“Fat Bitch”
I forced my eyelids shut
counted passing fads as they leapt with fluffy optimism
over bramble strewn fences
only to break their wooly necks upon landing
their bony caracasses heaping, resting, settling
on my hip bones.
I wondered if my weight would pull me through the bed beneath me
the earth blanketing me
as I sank.
Darkness with the squinting fade of starlight.
And then it came.
Ravishing hunger heaving me up
forcing me onto all fours
as I tore and shovelled wretched handfuls of
cabbage and root fly and slug.
I licked the soil from my fingers, sucked it from my nail bed
brushed away the crumbs at the corners of my lips.
I pulled myself up.
Trod the massacre of veiny heads
naked and bare.
Sat and sighed.
Googled:
"How to lose 7lbs in 7 days."
Michelle Davey is a writer and radio presenter from East London. She has blogged under the name The Cockney in the Countryside, talking about topics from her blog on BBC Radio and other platforms.