enjoy this writing from Christine Stoddard
in the free 6" x 9" 2017 PDF file chapbook: The Eating Game
(click on the front cover image or the
title text to download the free PDF file)
Emetics and Ermine
Christine Stoddard
Whenever your mother cooks decadent meals,
all you see and smell are freshly scrubbed toilets.
You can feel the porcelain seat grazing your chin
and the coolness pressing against your red cheek
after another exhausting lovemaking session
with your dear appliance friend, Kohler.
Friend with benefits? No, no benefits.
You were nine years old when you decided
you wanted to become Zsa Zsa Gabor
when you grew up—but thinner.
A life of pearls and ermine stoles
was the only life for you.
Drape everything from your skeleton
and paint your skull with lipstick.
Hang diamonds from your eye sockets.
Pose for another photo; flash your gold teeth.
When the bathroom door is shut and you
have been there weeping for an hour,
you take comfort in the long-awaited
tickle at the bottom of your throat.
Angels sing to the tune of nausea.
Hallelujah to the vomit gods.
The best dinner is one you can down quickly
and propel quickly, even before company departs.
There is a bloody science to glamour, Mother.
Only Kohler can ever understand.
