by Marijane Suttor

Created on: March 11, 2008

She stared at her paper
always taking every second
possible to pour
over the questions.

If she lost even one point,
if there was as much as one
mark of a red pen on her paper,
that would be failing.

When the teacher dared
to take away five points,
the image of perfection
was shattered beyond all
recognition.

If she could not control
the grading of her papers,
what could she control?
Her weight.

So in the desire for perfection,
she stopped eating,
sipping water
and munching carrots
and apples only.

Before long she had the same
exciting pleasure of success
that she had
when she received
100%
on a test.

Losing one size,
then two
and so on until
underneath it all
she was the utter image
of perfection.

The perfect skeleton,
that is.

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