The Moment

by T.C. Anderson

please have a safe flight and come back home soon. i will think up new ways to school you at chess. thank you for keeping me safe. love. jessie.

Starving made you easier to tie made your hipbones stick out made you look at food different made you hoard it made you binge it made you hate it. But starving made you superhuman. made things fly. made days disappear made cold cold cold seem like simmering, made lying down a necessity made staying out of sight a piece of cake. Cake. Starving made you ration made you plan made you pick up what you could carry and leave the rest behind made you a summer where your nutrition came mainly from worms in the park made you rich when you found little boys would bet you a quarter you wouldn't do it made you love school trashcans made you love any trashcans made you small enough to fit through the gates of the playground after hours made it so you could swing by yourself in the moonlight and pretend you were flying. You lean against your father and when he puts his arm around you you drop your weight completely.

You listen to the man who does not know starving talk about how starving you were. like there's only one way. and then Jules. and then.