Purposeful Starving

Why is eating such a painful thing,

Judgemental looks make a broken being

With her stomach rumbling and her eyes watering,

Because she’s afraid to be fat and unloved.

Why is everyone in the media so thin,

Their bodies are frail, but still they win

Over the globe, they are loved,

She is not, she won’t eat.

Why are people starving in the world,

Are they poor? Are their fingers curled

Around a food stamp, fighting to survive

The night in a place with no love?

Why has food become such a weapon,

Without it you’re dead, with it you’re deep in

To depression, a society where a teenage girl’s

self-worth is based on a number.

And why is it okay to starve yourself to bones,

While others must listen to the murmured groans

Of their children gone to bed without dinner,

It’s a shame someone doesn’t speak up.

Food is a gift that we should all cherish,

We could use it as a tool to nourish

one another, and reassure that we are ranked

Not by the size of our thighs, but our hearts.

That’s the change I want to make.