We say skinny
like it’s a swear word.
We blame skinny girls,
ask who ate the skinny girl
and can’t bear the skinny girl
who says anything about her weight.
We’ve branded ribs and collarbones
who didn’t ask to be shown.
We tell them to eat more,
call them twigs, stick-thin
and not flowers pretty enough
for the bees,
because only vultures pick at bones.
I’m not saying skinny
needs to be the new curvy
or vice versa.
I’m asking women and men
and every gender to be a little kinder
to every body.
Everybody has bones and insecurities,
pages of a history
they ripped from their open book
long ago, to be kept and stowed.
I’m asking as a girl
who has always been small
not to chastise me
for the way my elbows poke
when yours don’t.
All we are, is skin and bone
and it shouldn’t matter
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