A tonsillectomy at 5 years old
resulted in a shape change, Mama said.
Till then I seemed to always have a cold,
but afterwards I gained and grew instead
a steady challenge with obesity,
forever adding girth instead of height.
Just don’t gain more, my mother said to me,
while introducing new-age foods made “lite.”

Of course that didn’t work. I suffered on
uncomfortable in clothes and self-disdain.
Eventually I learned how vast the con
was propagated, counterfeit as main-
stream is, but here’s the truth of my success –
I’m mostly thin because my mouth’s a mess.