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)
Barbie’s Thigh Gap
Christine Stoddard
A harem of Barbie dolls invaded the living room
and set up camp to entertain the roves of girls and boys
cycling through the house after school.
But Sylvia could not just watch the dolls—
she had to possess one as she had to possess everything.
So she snatched her neighbor’s Barbie and hid it at home.
The kidnapped doll slept fitfully in a shoebox under Sylvia’s bed
until the evening the girl decided to remove her
and place her on a makeshift examination table.
Sylvia had cleared her desk of all its butterfly notebooks and crayons
to inspect Barbie’s body, from blonde head to tiny toe.
Naturally, the doll was naked as candles before the burn.
After Sylvia prodded Barbie’s breasts and considered her buttocks,
she seized a Sharpie and began marking the doll
with a series of dotted lines.
Trim this and trim that and maybe, Barbie, you have a chance at
achieving beauty, at earning love, at looking half as comely
as Sylvia’s mommy, the lady crouched in the hospital bed.
