Pool day
Shirt off
Trunks on
Cool water on hot skin
Laughter with everyone nearby
It’s fun, it’s fresh, it’s cool
One sentence cuts through the rest
“Go eat a sandwich. You’re like a twig.”
Laughter for all but one.
Doctor’s office
Appointment Day
One good health checkup
Vaccines are distributed
Heights are recorded
Weights are measured
One sentence stands out from the rest
“You’re underweight.”
I’m only eight. I don’t understand
A summer day with sprinklers
It’s time to head outside
and have fun in the sun
Dashing back and forth, laughing and shouting and cheering
We don’t do this often, so we’re just relishing the chance
Back and forth and back and forth we ran; a mesmerising dance
Sitting down to catch our breath, someone decides to speak
“Do you ever eat? You’re a skeleton!”
I don’t know how to respond. Of course I eat. Why wouldn’t I?
I’m with some friends at school recess
We do what we normally do
Walking and talking to waste time
The topics often vary from things we were doing in class
to things we were doing at home and with family
and sometimes we talked about more existential things
A silence falls for a second after one conversation topic ended
And in a panic to keep the conversation going, I say it:
“Check it out, you can totally count my ribs.”