Now That My Fat Suit is Complete
by and published in Edition Ten of Pomegranate
I’ll body-slam strangers.
Half the time I’ll pretend
it’s an accident. The other half
I’ll take a running start & cut
hard into the torso with
a hockey stop.
I’ll feel much better in my second skin.
I’ll be less shy & in control of my
thirty-percent rubber, four-percent gelatin
hand-stitched body—
I’ll invite all the local men
to dig for my biceps,
triceps, hamstrings, &
glutes, shiny with wonder like little boys
dipping their mittened-paws into soft snow.
“Mush!” I’ll yell & drag me, tied
to the sled, further into the tundra—barking
their secret language. They won’t draw &
quarter me. They’ll cut
along the seams, slap my bottom,
make me cry, christen me “Junior”
& tape this C
section. Congratulate me on my lack
of resemblance & throw
a birthday party: piñatas abound.
Jennifer Stockdale
Jen Stockdale is a twenty-six year old graduate student in the MFA program at the University of Notre Dame. She previously attended the creative writing program at Miami University. While at Miami, she served as poetry editor for the graduate publication, Oxford Magazine. As an undergraduate she attended the College of Wooster, where she received the Academy of American Poets prize. Stockdale currently teaches at Indiana University South Bend. Her work has appeared online at Other Rooms Press, and in print in Salt Hill.