The free-form poem is unedited and is about body shaming in a domestic relationship. Revisions will be available at a later time.

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The safety of your arms… wrapped too tight, 

A prison disguised as comfort. 

I cannot move, cannot breathe, 

Forced to surrender my potential, 

Drained of time, trapped, swallowed, used. 

Anxiety drums beneath my skin, 

Never receding, only retreating… 

When I am far from you. 

My pleas for release collapse 

Against empty walls, unheard, 

Pushing me deeper, deeper still 

Into the ocean beneath my waking mind, 

Where subconscious tides pull me away, 

Where your words, your gaze, 

Can no longer hurt me. 

Ghosts drift beside me… 

Remnants of old wounds, 

Familiar, unlike your calculated cruelty. 

They murmur warnings, 

Their presence heavy with the weight of history, 

A chorus of past suffering. 

Lacerations and bruises, once buried, now exposed, 

Prodded, reopened… deliberately. 

Days without eating, 

The first time I dared 

To reach for sustenance, 

To raise food to my lips… 

You laughed. 

Mocked. 

Grabbed my hips  

And what remained of me. 

Flesh still soft after 100 pounds lost. 

“How much more?” 

“What if it becomes too much?” 

Dismissed, discarded, unseen. 

Your gaze, dissecting, judging, 

Fixating on the bulge of my belly, 

A flicker of disgust… 

Silent, yet deafening. 

That look says it all. 

I can never be enough, never will I be free. 

I must leave–  

If not, the weight of your disdain 

Will pulverize what remains of me, 

Dragging me deeper into the depths 

Where only ghosts will know my name.