This line is the jokes you used to tell at sleepovers,
this one is learning calculus,
this is every movie that ever made me cry,
this the infant game of crinkling my nose at my niece,
this the first time my grandfather didn't know my name.
At night my lover traces my wrinkles over and over, a fingertip slide that maps our
whole lives.

-- Joanne Merriam, Murfreesboro, Tenn.

When I was in high school
I lifted weights competitively
And ran track and cross country and played soccer
It wasn't because I liked sports
It's because I didn't want to be fat.
Now I'm 24.
Out of shape, but smaller than I was then.
If I could go back in time and talk to that insecure 16-year-old girl
With her baby fat still clinging to all those super-strong muscles
I'd tell her that lifting weights actually makes you bigger
While chain-smoking cigarettes makes you smaller
So it's really best not to give a shit
And just do what you like in life
Just do it.

-- Jessica, New York, N.Y.

I wanted to live in a magazine lean
shoulder-driven, stripped-back, six-pack
body, all hard angles and triangles,
to try on a waist, tight butt and thighs.
Hungrily I pounded out lost pounds,
ached my muscles, made my mistakes,
shaping life into a joint-jarring world.
For all that effort, tired, stiff and sore,
my edges make respectable curves,
my midlife midriff is solidly mid range.
The experts agree: just more work.
But as I sweat, I see my ideal body
on others who look more comfortable;
They can keep it.

--Simon Terry, Melbourne, Australia

Slavic!

In a word, that's this body -
built from peasant stock.

Work the fields, have the babies in
the cold Croatian winter.

Big round hips and ass,
big sturdy legs and

Ruddy raspberries-and-cream complexion.

Light light eyes and
Norwegian hair. Don't forget
The Nose.

Never knew what it was for
til I had my baby.

He set this body free.

-- Kristin Topel

Chestnut Brown 112A

c'mon ladies
admit it
we've all done it
or we're going to
one day
even the purists among us
for whom every stretch mark
is a badge of honor worn.
even the women
in homes
where Miss Clairol
was never invited.
and
even those die-hard
fems among us
whose resentments vomit
disdain for the slightest
thought of possibility
that
they too
will
one day
and not even knowing why,
will
find themselves
staring full frontal,
mirror, mirror,
on the wall
what happened
to the smooth skinned girl

-- K. Hollister, Chicago

I love my face -- I think it's fine
Don't know how others find it.
Just for me it works quite well
Perhaps 'cuz I'm "behind" it.

-- M. Lake, Becket, Mass.

SAVASANA
(Seventy-Fifth Year)


Half awake Weightless
I dream myeslf into perfect postures
Lotus, Cobra, Locust
Pyramid, Warrior
Open, strong, torso-exposing Goddess
Divinely symmetrical
All linked in labyrinthine
Balanchinian transitions


A masterpiece in motion of
Breathing, concentration, grace


Slowly I roll to rise
Sit

Ouch! Ow! Holy Mother!


Fierce ache along the left ileac crest
Deep pain in the groin
Spasm between the sit bones
Knees crack when I stand

For relief I bend over
Just enough to bear my weight

After a few deep breaths
Now fully awake and aware
I pat my fat little apple-shaped belly
And laugh like the Buddha
As I limp down the stairs

-- Madalon Amenta, Pittsburgh, Pa.

An Ode:


If ever I joined the World Poker Tour,
A turtleneck would have to be my uniform.
For if not, then all would read
My each and every thought, The gamut of my emotions displayed --
For all the world to see --
Proud and defiant upon my skin,
A puzzle of red blotches.

The doctor calls it "stress-induced urticaria",
But I've termed it "blotchlism" (easier to say and much more witty)
The cure? "learn to relax" she says.
But there it is, spread over my skin,
Whether relaxed or nervous,
humored or angry, upset or aroused.
(men think it signals my excitement for them - haha, wrong!)

I'm told this is common among those
Of Scandinavian ancestry,
And I wonder, did Vikings ever raid Puglia?
Perhaps, some 1,000 year-old, recessive gene
That avoided generations of beautifully
Olive-skinned relatives,
Only to find a home in me, The only blonde, pale, blue-eyed one in the family.
But that opens up a whole other bag of questions ...

-- Andrea Catalano, Denver, Colo.

Fairest of Them All

Once I was
six foot four
with long blond hair
that would
have made
Fabio jealous
but sadly
I woke up.
Now in the mirror
I am
a balding
middle aged man
who wants
only to return
to the me
of my dreams.

-- Louis S. Faber

I wonder where the body went
I had at 24.
I have to say with much remorse
I've an hourglass no more.

Cellulite has settled in
And creeps south toward my knees.
My thighs create a friction burn
And my butt is cottage cheese.

I fear that saggy boobs are next
And wrinkles will set in.
It's unfair I still have daily war
With pimples on my skin.

But I don't hate the skinny girls
I tell them to enjoy themselves
For it's not going to last.

-- Anonymous from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

My thick locks of hair
Used to fly like an eagle
I had big moussable bangs
Like that guy in Flock of Seagulls
Then one day at the strip-mall salon
Via chair-turn and hand mirror was I shown
A small thin spot atop my noggin
Like a hole in the ozone
My then-girlfriend bought me chemicals
To spray onto the spot
But "may decrease sex drive"
Didn't sound so hot
So I've watched the pattern grow
Like a yarmulke of air
While my ears, back and nostrils
Gained surpluses of hair
On first dates I strafe side to side
To hide the rear half of my noodle
I've considered letting tattoo artists
Use the space to doodle
Now, I could shave myself bald or grow a distracting goattee
But this just isn't my style
Instead I joke, "I'm having a bad-hair life"
And avoid three-way mirrors by a mile

-- Zak

I can fit into my 501s again!
And even my vinyl micro-mini!
I have lost over 10 pounds of late
although I'm still not skinny.


I can thank exercise and diet
for making me relatively lean
but it's not just the low cholesterol, low fat, low sodium and no sugar-
it's also Triamterene.*

here comes a time in everyone's life
when heredity catches up with health
and medications become necessities
threatening what's left of one's dubious wealth.

I still look young and feel even younger
and hope I get positive attention
but the healthier ways my life has changed
are due to hypertension!

*Diuretic medication

-- Lynne Bronstein, Santa Monica, Calif.

My thighs rub together
I am a yoga expert from contorting my body to pull on my pants
When I walk, the friction creates heat

And wears out the inside seams of my jeans
Which I have to buy in a bigger size, causing them to gape at the waist
In the summer, the heat causes sweat to run down my legs
And I get razor bumps from the contact
No curves at my hips or butt to balance them
They cause me to stand with my legs slightly apart
My legs look like the food pyramid
Wide at the top and skinny at the bottom

-- Kristina Lynch, Chicago, Ill.

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