Who else remembers growing up

With those sayings

That we’d learn

From our teachers

Like, “treat others the way you want to be treated,”

From our dads

Like, “work hard for what you want,”

From our mothers

Like, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,”

And “Don’t reward yourself with food, you’re not a dog,”

And “Leave a few bites left on your plate” because a

Man doesn’t like a girl who he can’t wrap his hands around her wrists and,

Whose fragile, malnourished cheekbones, he can’t break with a kiss and,

Whose stomach, doesn’t cave inward on itself,

Slowly taking from every muscle,

Every fiber of your heart,

Because it's the last damn source of food

That your body can feed from because you haven’t eaten

In weeks.

And, 

Because a man

Doesn’t like a girl

Whose legs don’t hold open air,

Between the curvature of her thighs,

And cause her to shutter

In 80 degree heat because

Her slowing pulse

Refuses to make its own

And

Because no one likes

An ugly friend,

A fat sister,

A lazy, despicable daughter.

And,

That if your worth

Could be measured

It’d be on the app

On your phone

That constantly, constructively criticizes your caloric intake,

And counts the seconds between every small and unsatiating bite you take

Of that celery, slathered with salt and spice

Because you’ve developed something called

“Diet tongue”

Where nothing, nothing

Unless it’s soaked in sriracha or soy sauce or sauerkraut

Will taste good

because your body has forgotten

What it is like to be loved,

What it is like to be cared for,

What it is like to be fed.

So instead,

You repeat those sayings,

Like a broken record in your head.

But you can’t understand why

You say these things to yourself

If you’re supposed to treat others the way you want to be treated,

If you’re supposed to care for others the way you wished they'd care for you.

If you’d feed your friend why do you insist on starving yourself?

If you’d feed your dog why do you insist on not asking for help?

Its because like dad said,

“Work hard for what you want”,

And if being pretty is goal,

Mother will teach you,

Mother knows.